Does Cred give you street cred?

Say hello to a brand new blog series. In this series, we will focus on all the small to medium size tech startups of India, the big idea behind their conception, the product, who’s funding them and more questions as such. The focal point of the series will be to understand what these tech startups are aiming at and how they are trying to solve a certain set of problems with their product. In this blog, we will be taking a look at a relatively young brand called ‘Cred’.

What is the product?

If you are a frequent credit card user, then I am sure you are aware about all the types of rewards associated with your card. But what if I told you that you could get some more dough for paying your credit card bills as well? Hear me out, I know you will. Cred, a new startup by Kunal Shah, who earlier founded FreeCharge, aims at rewarding people who own credit cards and have a credit score of 750 and above. These credit card owners are rewarded with offers and discounts from multiple brands relating to shopping, health services and more.

Who has invested in their venture?

Kunal Shah’s reputation precedes him, and this resulted in him securing a hefty sum of investments from a number of investors even before he launched his venture. These investors include Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital and Ru-net. He managed to conjure up a total of $25 million from the aforementioned investors and at least 20 other angel investors.

Why should you care about Cred?

Well, if you are on of those who doesn’t want any extra benefits with your credit card or maybe have a little too much to care for something like this, then you are welcome to skip this. But for the rest of us, this app is like a blessing in disguise. The way this app works is pretty simple. You make your credit card bill payment via the app and you receive something called ‘Cred Points’. For each rupee you get 1 Cred Point. You can then use these Cred Points for redeeming rewards from their rewards library. Simple, right? These rewards keep on updating on a regular basis and some of the most valuable rewards I have come across include tickets to events, free coffee, discounts on brands like The Man Company, Sleepy Owl, Blue Tokai, Cult Fit, Freshmenu membership, Myntra, Box8 and many more. There’s more. You can also burn Cred Points to get some cashback on your credit card bill. If you refer your friends and they sign up and make their first payment using your referral code, you receive something called ‘Cred Gems’. These Cred Gems are worth more than regular Cred Points and can you get you access to even more premium rewards like Uber credits, Amazon gift cards, Flipkart gift cards, free flight tickets from Cleartrip. Convinced much?

What are they trying to achieve?

Cred’s goal seems simple. They are trying to encourage better credit card bill payment hygiene by giving out incentives. The app is founded by a seasoned entrepreneur Kunal Shah, who also founded of Freecharge. We all know about Freecharge what that app achieved in terms of changing the mobile recharge market and people’s recharging habits. At the time of its launch, that app was one of its kind and a lot of other apps followed suit. Kunal Shah seems to have figured out a way to change consumer habits, and it’s rather simple. If you want consumers to do something a certain way, you provide them with the right incentives to be motivated to do so. At one point, the founder even labelled his company as a “marketing company that uses recharge as a medium” in order to differentiate themselves from their competitors like Paytm.

How is their industry track record?

Cred is a fairly new brand and there is not much we can say about their track record. But if we look at the founder’s track record, then it is safe to say that we can expect more innovation coming our way in the future. Freecharge, Kunal Shah’s earlier venture had done pretty well and when he finally decided to sell it, he sold it for $400 million. At the time, it was the largest acquisition of an internet company in India.

Cred is a unique proposition from Kunal Shah and their mission to help maintain repayment hygiene is commendable. We will keep covering such underrated indigenous tech companies and spreading the contagious entrepreneurial fever for more such companies to rise through the ranks and make a positive impact.