CRED is raising $140 million in a new round of funding, its fourth in the past year and a half, as the Indian fintech startup acquires millions of high-credit-score customers and expands its services.
GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, is leading the Bengaluru-based startup’s Series F funding round, which includes secondary trading, the startup said on Thursday evening. Existing backers Tiger Global, Sofina Ventures, Alpha Wave Ventures and Dragoneer also participated in the fund, with a value of $6.4 billion, up from $2.2 billion last April, and 4 billion dollars in October.
CRED begins to hold preliminary conversations with a group of investors for this round last year, TechCrunch previously reported.
The investment comes at a time when CRED is completing its acquisition of Smallcase, an Amazon-backed startup. In the early days of deliberation, CRED sought to invest in Smallcase instead of acquiring it, TechCrunch Report earlier this year. A spokesperson for CRED declined to comment on the Smallcase settlement.
The acquisition of Smallcase, which operates on a platform to help a new generation of investors enter the Indian stock market, will allow CRED to enhance its services to customers. The startup, founded by fintech veteran Kunal Shah, helps and encourages individuals to improve their credit scores by incentivizing them to pay their credit card bills on time and win rewards . But over the past year and a half, CRED has significantly expanded its offerings.
The startup today offers customers discounts on high-end hotels and helps them access scores of consumer-oriented luxury brands. Last year, it also launched Mint, a peer-to-peer lending service, where customers can lend to other individuals on the platform at a “beating inflation” rate.
