CRED forays into corporate finance management, to acquire Happay

CRED on Wednesday said it was acquiring business expense management startup Happay in a cash and stock deal that would potentially value the fintech startup at $180 million, as part of its foray into the enterprise expends space.

The deal will help CRED tap the growing business expenses management market, which has lately been seeing a lot of activity in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis. Enterprise fintech companies have been instrumental in not only helping businesses keep a closer eye on their spends, but centralising business credit cards as well.

For CRED, a leader in the credit card spending and repayment rewards space, the acquisition of Happay will help expand its offering to businesses.

"With professional expenses forming a significant portion of credit card spends, bringing professional expense management into the CRED ecosystem is a natural extension of our proposition," said Kunal Shah, Founder of CRED.

"Happay’s product strength, customer experience, and vision align with our intent at CRED to reward responsible financial behaviour and we’re excited to partner them in their journey towards leading the category," he added.

Happay will operate as a separate entity within the CRED ecosystem, but work closely with its leadership to build distribution, expand the product offering and drive scale, CRED said in a press release.

Employees of Happay will get all the benefits that CRED's team members get, including employee stock options.

Launched in 2012 by Anshul Rai and Varun Rathi as an effort to crack an important piece of the payment puzzle, Happay is an all-in-one expense management software for businesses that brings an organisation’s business expenses on one platform, enabling them to fund, track and manage them online, thereby giving real-time visibility and control over business spending.

The Bengaluru-based startup serves over 6,000 businesses, including TATA Group, PwC, Maruti, BYJU'S and Udaan, among others, managing work-related expenses for over a million users, with $1 billion in annual spends.

"The next phase of our growth will come from building scale, brand, and distribution. The CRED team’s experience in this regard is unparalleled, and we’re excited to learn and grow together," Happay's Anshul said.

In April last year, Happay launched EPIC - a corporate card designed to suit the needs of startups. The programme allows startups to get dedicated physical and unlimited virtual cards, along with perks like discounts and cashbacks.