CRED raises $81 million, initiates ESOP buyback worth Rs 9cr

In the process, existing and former employees have liquidated their ESOPs, collectively worth $1.2 million (Rs 9 crore).

Bengaluru: A members-only credit card management and bill payments platform CRED on Monday said it has raised $81 million in its Series C round, which puts the company at $806 million valuation.

In the process, existing and former employees have liquidated their ESOPs, collectively worth $1.2 million (Rs 9 crore).

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According to the company, the ESOP buyback was completed on January 1 and this is the first ESOP liquidity programme initiated by CRED, just two years into its operations.

Employees who hold vested stocks were eligible to sell up to 50 per cent of their vested ESOP shares in the company, the company said in a statement.

“It’s important to acknowledge the role that employees have played in our success. We are committed to enabling wealth-creation opportunities for them and have allocated 10% of our captable allocated for ESOPs even at the Series C stage,” said Kunal Shah, Founder, CRED.

Existing CRED investor DST Global led the round, along with Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global, and General Catalyst. In addition, Sofina, Coatue and Satyan Gajwani of Times Internet also invested in this round.

In two years, the CRED community has grown to over 5.9 million high-trust individuals with a median credit score of 830.

CRED said it processes 20 per cent of all credit card bill payments in India.

Over 35 per cent of premium credit card holders in India are on CRED, with members spending 2X of the average credit card user in India.