Tiger Global may back Cred’s $100 mn funding round: Report

As part of its ongoing discussions to raise $100 million (Rs 697 crore at current exchange rate), Kunal Shah’s fintech company Cred is in advanced talks with Tiger Global Management to invest up to $20 million (Rs 139 crore at current exchange rate) in the firm, said The Economic Times.

The New York investment firm has made fintech bets in the past, including neo-banking startup Open and online stock brokerage company Upstox.

Persons in the know told The Economic Times that the current round will value Credit at $400 million (Rs 2,790 crore at current exchange rate). The round will be led by Sequoia Capital and joined by China’s Hillhouse Capital and California’s Ribbit Capital.

Cred, launched by mobile wallet and bill payment company FreeCharge co-founder Kunal Shah in November 2018, has already raised $30 million from a clutch of investors including Sequoia Capital, RPT Global and China’s Morningside Ventures.

Cred, a members-only app, lets users pay credit card bills and rewards them in the form of Credit Coins, which can be redeemed across partner businesses including CureFit, Ixigo, BookMyShow, and FreshMenu. This also gives the app an insight into customer spend, which can be used for cross-selling and up-selling products. Credit is also likely to launch an insurance product in the near future.

This is Shah’s second venture after he co-founded FreeCharge in 2010 and sold it to online marketplace Snapdeal for $450 million in one of the largest acquisitions of the time. The company was finally bought by Axis Bank at a discount of 90% from Snapdeal for $60 million.

Tiger Global has ramped up funding in Indian startups, as Lee Fixel, the low-flying head of the New York firm’s private equity business, nears the end of his tenure in June. Unlike Fixel's bets in consumer internet space in 2015-16, the focus is on co-investing in B2B companies in the logistics, SaaS, grocery and other sectors, apart from fintech. Recently, logistics management firm Locus raised $26 million led by Tiger Global and Falcon Edge. In April 2019, Tiger Global invested $90 million in agri-marketing company Ninjacart. Industrial goods marketplace Moglix is also said to be in talks with the fund for its next round.