[Funding alert] CRED raises $140M in Series F round at $6.4B valuation

Fintech unicorn CRED has raised $140 million (Rs 1,089 crore) of fresh capital (primary and secondary) as part of its Series F funding round from new and existing investors. 

The digital payments platform has approved the issuance of 42,308 Series F Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares (CCPS) at an issue price of Rs 145,846.98 per share to raise $80 million, a regulatory filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) shows.

The round is led by GIC (via Lathe Investment) at Rs 467 crore, followed by Tiger Global, Sofina Ventures SA, Falcon Edge, and Dragoneer. 

This fresh round values the company at $6.4 billion—60 percent higher than its previous valuation of $4.01 billion when it raised a Series E financing round of $251 million from existing investors, in October 2021. 

In 2021, the startup raised capital through three rounds—$81 million in its Series C round, $215 million in Series D, and finally, $251 million in Series E. 

In March 2022, The CapTable had reported about this impending deal and CRED's plans to foray into wealth management. Read the full story here.

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Founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah, CRED offers rewards and benefits to premium credit card users for paying credit bills. Later, the company expanded its base into lending ecommerce payments and providing short-term loans through Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) options. Last year, it also forayed into the P2P lending segment. 

The platform forayed into corporate finance management by acquiring Happay, which offers all-in-one expense management software for businesses. 

CRED’s losses had widened by 45 percent year-on-year to Rs 524 crore for FY 2021, from Rs 360 crore a year ago. The company, however, saw a jump of over 400 percent in revenues—from Rs 18.16 crore in FY20 to Rs 95.53 crore in FY21. Total revenue from operations jumped to Rs 88 crore in FY21 from Rs 52 lakh. 

The firm is yet to disclose its financial results for FY22.  

On Thursday, NPCI Bharat BillPay, the wholly-owned subsidiary of National Payments Corporation of India announced that it had onboarded CRED as a key agent institution for providing easy bill payment solutions. With the collaboration, CRED users will be able to make recurring bill payments like electricity, telecom, DTH, gas, education fees, water, and municipal taxes more conveniently.

(The story was updated to reflect the total funding as shared by CRED.)