Cred to close $125 mn Series-A round; Ebix, MakeMyTrip look to buy Cox & Kings

Fintech company raised $65 million from multiple investors including Sequoia and Apoletto. Brick-and-mortar travel company attracts buyers.

Cred gets $65 mn from Yuri Milner’s Apoletto, others

Freecharge founder Kunal Shah’s fintech company Cred has received $65 million as part of a larger Series-A round pegged at $125 million, Mint reported.

The report, citing unnamed sources, said the money was received from Sequoia Capital, US-based Ribbit Capital and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner’s Apoletto Asia.

China-based investment firm Hillhouse Capital and Tiger Global are expected to account for the remainder of the targeted sum, the report added.

Whatsapp messages sent to Shah, founder of Cred, seeking more information in this regard did not elicit a message at the time of filing this report.

Even before its launch in November 2018, Cred had raised $30 million in June last year from multiple investors including Sequoia Capital, RPT Global, and China’s Morningside Ventures.

The latest development comes even as media reports of a $100 million round as well as Tiger Global’s imminent participation have been doing the rounds at least since April this year.

Owned by Dreamplug Technologies, Cred is a members-only platform that rewards users for paying credit card bills on time. Cred offers discounts on shopping, healthcare, travel and other services. For the rewards, Cred has partnered, among others, furniture rental platform Furlenco, travel booking site Ixigo, and healthcare platform CureFit.

Ebix, MakeMyTrip in race to buy Cox & Kings

Tour and travel services company Cox & Kings has attracted the attention of US-headquartered software firm Ebix and MakemyTrip as potential acquirers, The Economic Times reported.

The report, citing unnamed sources familiar with the development, said the interest from the two companies is driven by the large customer base of the Mumbai-based brick-and-mortar company.

Accordingly, talks are on with Cox & Kings promoter Peter Kerkar and Yes Bank, which picked up 18.55% late last month.

A spokesperson for Ebix declined to comment while email queries sent to Cox & Kings and MakeMyTrip did not elicit a response at the time of filing
this report.

Cox & Kings, set up in 1758, is one of the oldest names in the travel business. The company, which is based out of both India and the UK, has subsidiaries in the United States, Canada, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

For Ebix, this deal, should it materialise, would come close on the heels after it made its largest acquisition last month when it announced buying Yatra for $337.8 million (Rs 2326.86 crore then).

For MakeMyTrip, the deal talks come after Ctrip recently became its largest stakeholder in April, following a share-swap deal with South African conglomerate Naspers.

In the same month, MakeMyTrip acquired a majority stake in Mumbai-based corporate travel management firm Quest2Travel.