CRED to acquire lending as a service platform CreditVidya

Kunal Shah, founder and CEO, CRED. Illustration: Suneesh K

Credit card payments and financial services player CRED said on November 29 that it will acquire Hyderabad-based SaaS player CreditVidya, which offers lending-as-a-service, for an undisclosed amount to expand its lending offerings. The transaction is a mix of cash & stock, and closure of the acquisition is subject to requisite approvals, CRED added.

Founded in 2012 by financial analyst Abhishek Agarwal and banking veteran Rajiv Raj, CreditVidya’s full-stack platform enables businesses to embed customized credit products through APIs.

The platform offers the entire customer lifecycle - from origination to underwriting to collections of loans. It also allows customers to borrow from its lending partners including TVS Credit, Aeon Credit, Fullerton India etc.

Kunal Shah, founder, CRED, said in a statement, “Expanding access to credit is a key driver for financial progress. CreditVidya's patented tech stack uncovers signals of trust among under-served cohorts. We look forward to supporting them in powering an inclusive credit ecosystem.”

According to data on Crunchbase, CreditVidya has raised a total of $10 million till date from investors including Bharat Innovation Fund, Kalaari Capital and Matrix Partners. The company was last valued at $30 million, according to reports.

CRED and CreditVidya will continue to operate independently, the statement said. Further, CreditVidya’s 200-plus team members will get all the benefits extended to CRED team members, including its Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) program.

Agarwal, co-founder & CEO, CreditVidya, said, “We’ve invested in building category-defining products that bring financial services to credit under-served Indians through our partners, transforming how risk is assessed and trust measured to drive financial inclusion.”

CRED, founded by serial entrepreneur Shah, started in 2018 for India's most credit-worthy individuals to pay their credit card bills and earn points. It has since expanded into lending, e-commerce payments and advertising for brands.

In October, the Tiger Global and Falcon Edge Capital (Alpha Wave) backed startup also launched the option of allowing users to make scan and pay Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions.

Shah has also ramped up CRED’s commerce play by onboarding multiple online-only consumer brands on its platform. It recently introduced a zero commission Cred store onboarding platform, waiving off listing fees for onboarding and commissions from any sale for all brand partners.

Over the past year, CRED has made multiple acquisitions including expense management platform Happay for $180 million and liquor purchase and delivery startup HipBar.