After 3 years 'on the sidelines', Kunal Shah finally reveals his new venture, Cred
Entrepreneur Kunal Shah just teased his latest venture on social media platforms. Co-founder of payments company FreeCharge, Kunal announced that his new startup Cred would be a platform to “celebrate and reward the most creditworthy people of India.”
In a post on LinkedIn and in a simultaneous tweet, Kunal wrote, “Excited to announce Cred, my new startup after 3+ years of playing on the sidelines.”
He added, “Team working hard to get the beta out in a few weeks.”
Earlier this year, Kunal raised $30 million for his new venture from a group of investors led by Sequoia Capital. At the time, media reports also suggested that Russian fund Ru-Net, fintech-focused fund Ribbit Capital, and a few other investors were looking to participate in the funding round for Kunal’s latest venture.
Following today's announcement, many investors and entrepreneurs congratulated him on his new venture. Notable names included Anand Lunia, General Partner at early-stage fund India Quotient, Kunal Bahl, Founder and CEO of ecommerce platform Snapdeal, and T.R. Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, India & South Asia, Visa.
An incubator? A lender? Or a credit scoring agency?
Several others raised questions over whether Cred could be a centralised credit scoring agency, a lending startup, or an incubator for new ventures.
When YourStory reached out to Kunal, he did not provide any further details, but agreed to share more about the new venture “soon.”
Cred is Kunal’s second entrepreneurial venture. He previously co-founded FreeCharge, which he sold to Snapdeal in 2015 for $450 million in one of the biggest consumer internet M&As of the time. Subsequently, he served as Chairman for the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and later as an advisor to Sequoia Capital.
Kunal is also an active investor, having invested in multiple startups such as payments platform RazorPay, online fashion marketplace Voonik, and Indonesian unicorn Go-Jek.
Serial entrepreneurs turning to fintech?
Kunal’s latest venture Cred suggests yet another fintech play for the serial entrepreneur. However, he is not the only one this year to look towards fintech as the next venture.
Serial entrepreneur Ashish Kashyap, who had earlier co-founded Ibibo Group, also started a full-stack wealth tech platform INDwealth in June this year. Last month, Steadview Capital, a UK- and Hong Kong-based hedge fund, invested $30 million as part of a seed round in Ashish’s new venture, which is due to begin operations in January next year.
Similarly, Satyen Kothari, who previously co-founded Citrus Pay, announced in October that his latest wealth management startup Cube had raised Rs 14 crore (about $2 million) in equity funding from Singapore-based venture fund Beenext, Japan-based Asuka Holding, and 500 Startups.
