Cred raises Series C funding
Mumbai: Dreamplug Technologies, which owns and operates credit card payment platform Cred, has raised $81 million (Rs 591 crore) in a Series C round led by returning investor DST Global.
Along with the fresh infusion, the company has bought back employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) shares worth $1.2 million from existing and former employees. In its first-ever buyback initiatives, eligible employees were able to sell up to 50% of their vested ESOP shares.
“As we raise funds to support our next phase of growth, 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 cap table allocated for ESOPs even at the Series C stage,” Kunal Shah, founder, CRED, said.
Founded by former Freecharge founder Shah in 2018, Cred is a members-only app that lets users pay credit card bills and rewards them in the form of credit coins, which can be redeemed across partner businesses including CureFit, Ixigo, BookMyShow, and FreshMenu. This also gives the app an insight into customer spends, which can be used for cross-selling and up-selling products.
