Kunal Shah, founder of FreeCharge in the year 2010, after selling his startup to Snapdeal in 2015, not spending at least 5 years in his own start-up has come up stronger in 2018 with Cred. Spending crores of rupees in IPL for advertising and promoting his new startup and the application.
Have you ever wondered about how Cred is making profits or meeting their expenses? Let us tell you about this. Starting Cred in the huge competitive Indian market is a big challenge and the team Cred has almost made it possible.
Cred is the first of its kind startup originated in India that provides a unique service in the Indian market. This is a app that allows credit cardholders to pay bills through the app by giving them certain benefits like rewards, coins, and tickets for every payment they make using the app.
Cred Basic Info:
- Founded: 2018
- Founders: Kunal Shah
- CEO: Kunal Shah
- Website: cred.club
- Industry: Lifestyle and Finance
- Tagline: Suraksha Aur Bharosa Dono
- Areas Served: India
- Services Provided: Credit Card Bills, Loans, Rent, and many more
- Legal Name: Dreamplug Technologies Pvt Ltd
- Head Quarters: Bengaluru, India
You might have seen Cred through ads at the time of the Indian Premier League featuring Rahul Dravid that became viral. With a unique marketing strategy, this two-year-old start-up always caught the eyes of the public.
It was founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah with Banglore as its base with a “simple goal”, as quoted by Kunal, the founder, and the CEO of the company. This completely secure app bagged nearly 30 lakh users in less than two annual business years.
It allows its users to pay bills, loans, rents using their credit card but through the application in return for amazing benefits like Cred coins, rewards, offers that can be redeemed for flight tickets, at coffee shops, and many more places.
Kunal Shah believed that “keeping taxpayers of the country happy is more important than focusing on the masses” which he eventually did. He provided surplus offers to the app users who paid their bills on time giving them the great chance to improve their points on the app.
Though it has incurred a loss of 360 crores during the 2020 financial year for major marketing of the company, it has gained popularity and trust among Indian users.
Business Method of Cred
The model of Cred can be summed up in three steps:
- The Cred app
- Companies that provide offers on the app
- Credit card users who pay bills through it and redeem points
Revenue Stream
Indian credit card users can directly pay their payments to the banks but using Cred app will enable users to get offers. The offers are provided by different businesses and companies to the app users to use their products. Cred usually charges for such businesses that generate Cred the revenue for now.
The company is funded by DST Global, Sequoia Capital India, and Tiger Global among other investors, and it is currently valued at an estimated worth of 2.2 billion dollars.
When the company initially started, the major problem ahead of Kunal Shah was to gain the trust of Indians that Cred is safe and they can trust them with the money. With the major problem out of the way, the company now wishes to move onwards and upwards.
The Cred’s journey is not been so easy. Advertising at the costliest venue in India, i.e., IPL and pandemic hitting the financial sector, which was a soul target of the Cred in the country, made a rough path.
