CRED has raised $215 million in a Series D funding round, its valuation soaring to $2.2 billion. The round was led by Falcon Edge Capital, a new investor and Coatue Management LLP, an existing investor. Other investors in the round included Insight Partners, DST Global, RTP Global, Tiger Global, Greenoaks Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group and Sofina, most of whom are existing investors. This comes just three months after the company’s Series C round, as part of which it raised $81 million at an $806 million valuation.
In an email to employees, founder and CEO Kunal Shah said, “While valuation is a milestone that many celebrate, we view it as a responsibility and an opportunity to create member value.”
“We’ve grown rapidly over the past 2.5 years, with 35% of premium credit card holders and processing 22% of all credit card payments in India on a monthly basis. As the credit card category continues to grow rapidly in India, our opportunity is to imagine new use-cases, empower CRED members to use credit responsibly, and reward them for good financial behaviour,” he told employees.
In a statement, Kunal Shah said that the company’s growth in the past year, “has demonstrated the potential value of the high-trust, low-friction platform the CRED team has been building, and we are delighted to share the value created with investors, team members, as well as partners and the CRED community.”
CRED said it will also offer another ESOP buyback opportunity with a value of $5 million. In his email, Kunal said that many were keen on retaining their stock options during the Series C round, and they are now offering another ESOP buyback opportunity.
In January, CRED had said it raised $81 million in its Series C round, at a valuation of $806 million. At the time, existing and former employees liquidated ESOPs $1.2 million. Employees who held vested stocks were eligible to sell up to 50% of their vested ESOP shares in the company.