Kunal Shah’s CRED gets payment aggregator licence from RBI

CRED gets RBI nod to operate as payment aggregator

• CRED gets RBI approval to operate as a payment aggregator
• CRED now holds both PA and PPI licenses from RBI
• CRED reported Rs 2,735 crore revenue in FY25, up 16 percent

Did our AI summary help?

Mobile payments firm CRED has got the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) nod to operate as a payment aggregator (PA). The licence enables CRED, registered as Dreamplug Paytech Solutions Private Limited, to onboard merchants directly, bypassing other payment intermediaries or banks, the company said on March 11.

Bengaluru-based CRED became popular as a credit card bill payments platform, which rewarded timely payments by customers. The app has since emerged as a payments platform, offering various financial services and products, including personal loans, one of its largest money-making verticals.

“Stakeholder trust has been central to how we have built CRED. We have maintained a high standard for performance, reliability, transparency, and governance. The authorisation to operate as a payment aggregator reflects the trust we have consistently built across the ecosystem,” founder Kunal Shah said in a statement.

Why PA licence

Large payment firms, such as Paytm and PhonePe, also hold a PA licence. PAs enable e-commerce sites and merchants to accept various payment methods from customers to complete payment obligations, without requiring merchants to build their systems. PAs get the payments from customers, pool and transfer them to the merchants.

With the new approval, CRED and its subsidiaries now hold two RBI licences, the Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) licence previously secured and the PA licence.

The company added that its group entities also hold a IRDA's corporate agency licence to distribute insurance, a registered investment advisor licence from SEBI to recommend investments and a TPAP license from NPCI to run UPI payments.

CRED revenue

Cred reported consolidated operating revenue of Rs 2,735 crore in FY25, a 16 percent increase from the previous year. Operating losses declined 51 percent to Rs 298 crore. Total losses for the year narrowed 11.5 percent to Rs 1,457 crore.

According to CRED, it managed payments of over Rs 8.5 lakh crore made by its customer base of around 1.5 crore. The company said that over a third of credit card bill payments in India are made on the app.

About 45 percent of active members used three or more products on the platform, the company said. Average revenue per user (ARPU) stood at Rs 2,000, the highest in the payments ecosystem, with users engaging with four or more products generating 75 per cent higher ARPU than the platform average, the firm added.

It said that with the ability to manage core payment flows directly, its customers might see a faster, more seamless, and more reliable payment experience.

Founded in 2018 by Shah, CRED focuses on affluent and creditworthy users.