Meta in talks to invest in Kunal Shah’s Cred
While the tech giant has explored investing tens of millions of dollars in Cred as primary capital, it has also evaluated other options, including a full acquisition of the company and bringing founder Kunal Shah into the organisation in an operating role, sources told Moneycontrol.
3 Min Read
Facebook parent Meta, over the past weeks, has held discussions to invest in Cred in a deal which values the Indian fintech and payments startup at $4 billion, at least six people aware of the discussions told Moneycontrol.
The proposed $4 billion (₹38,000 crore) valuation is modestly above the company's marked-down $3.5 billion valuation in 2025, but remains significantly below the $6.4 billion it commanded during its last major funding round in 2022.
“Which path Meta ultimately chooses remains unclear. What is evident, however, is that Cred is in need of fresh capital and Meta has expressed a willingness to back the company,” one of the people cited above said.
Cred and Meta did not respond to Moneycontrol’s queries.
Meta's interest in Cred is understandable as it looks to build a sizable presence in India's payments landscape. With ownership of Cred, Meta would own the full stack. Facebook and Instagram would serve as the discovery layer, WhatsApp would power commerce, or increasingly agentic commerce, while Cred would provide the payments infrastructure.
Meta, through WhatsApp Pay, and Cred already compete in India's digital payments market. Despite their ambitions, both players have struggled to gain significant market share in the UPl ecosystem.
UPI is the world's largest real-time payments network, processing more than 23 billion transactions worth over $300 billion every month.
The market remains heavily concentrated, with Walmart-owned PhonePe and Google Pay together accounting for nearly 80% of all transactions. Other players, including WhatsApp Pay, Cred and Amazon Pay, have struggled to gain meaningful scale, each holding less than 1% market share and collectively accounting for under 2% of the market, according to the latest available data.
Founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah, Cred focuses on affluent and creditworthy users in India.
Prakash Padukone on daughter Deepika and Ranveer Singh's parenting style, says 'Deepika does a lot more, but Ranveer helps a lot...
The Bengaluru-based fintech unicorn said it had reported consolidated operating revenue of ₹2,735 crore in FY25, a 16% increase from the previous year. Its operating losses declined 51% to ₹298 crore, according to a company statement released on January 30. The company is yet to file its official numbers with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).
Total losses for the year narrowed 11.5% year-on-year to ₹1,457 crore. Gross margins stood at around 70% in FY25, reflecting improved operating leverage as the company scaled its product offerings and monetisation efforts.
During the year, Cred's monthly transacting users rose 14.5% to 1.26 crore, while transaction frequency increased 34% 14.4 transactions per user per month. Total payment value processed on the platform grew 23% year-on-year to ₹8.5 lakh crore.
The company said deeper adoption of multiple products contributed to stronger monetisation.
About 45% of active members used three or more products on the platform. Average revenue per user (ARPU) stood at ₹2,000, the highest in the payments ecosystem, with users engaging with four or more products generating 75% higher ARPU than the platform average.
Since its inception about eight years ago, Cred has so far raised around $1 billion from Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, Peak XV Partners, Greenoaks Capital, DST Global and several others.
For Meta, this Cred investment, if it goes through, will be yet another bet after backing upstarts like Meesho and Unacademy in the past.
The proposed $4 billion (₹38,000 crore) valuation is modestly above the company's marked-down $3.5 billion valuation in 2025, but remains significantly below the $6.4 billion it commanded during its last major funding round in 2022.
While the tech giant has explored investing tens of millions of dollars in Cred as primary capital, it has also evaluated other options, including a full acquisition of the company at a lower valuation and bringing founder Kunal Shah into the organisation in an operating role, sources told Moneycontrol.
“Which path Meta ultimately chooses remains unclear. What is evident, however, is that Cred is in need of fresh capital and Meta has expressed a willingness to back the company,” one of the people cited above said.
Cred and Meta did not respond to Moneycontrol’s queries.
Meta's interest in Cred is understandable as it looks to build a sizable presence in India's payments landscape. With ownership of Cred, Meta would own the full stack. Facebook and Instagram would serve as the discovery layer, WhatsApp would power commerce, or increasingly agentic commerce, while Cred would provide the payments infrastructure.
Meta, through WhatsApp Pay, and Cred already compete in India's digital payments market. Despite their ambitions, both players have struggled to gain significant market share in the UPl ecosystem.
UPI is the world's largest real-time payments network, processing more than 23 billion transactions worth over $300 billion every month.
The market remains heavily concentrated, with Walmart-owned PhonePe and Google Pay together accounting for nearly 80% of all transactions. Other players, including WhatsApp Pay, Cred and Amazon Pay, have struggled to gain meaningful scale, each holding less than 1% market share and collectively accounting for under 2% of the market, according to the latest available data.
Founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah, Cred focuses on affluent and creditworthy users in India.
Prakash Padukone on daughter Deepika and Ranveer Singh's parenting style, says 'Deepika does a lot more, but Ranveer helps a lot...
The Bengaluru-based fintech unicorn said it had reported consolidated operating revenue of ₹2,735 crore in FY25, a 16% increase from the previous year. Its operating losses declined 51% to ₹298 crore, according to a company statement released on January 30. The company is yet to file its official numbers with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).
Total losses for the year narrowed 11.5% year-on-year to ₹1,457 crore. Gross margins stood at around 70% in FY25, reflecting improved operating leverage as the company scaled its product offerings and monetisation efforts.
During the year, Cred's monthly transacting users rose 14.5% to 1.26 crore, while transaction frequency increased 34% 14.4 transactions per user per month. Total payment value processed on the platform grew 23% year-on-year to ₹8.5 lakh crore.
The company said deeper adoption of multiple products contributed to stronger monetisation.
About 45% of active members used three or more products on the platform. Average revenue per user (ARPU) stood at ₹2,000, the highest in the payments ecosystem, with users engaging with four or more products generating 75% higher ARPU than the platform average.
Since its inception about eight years ago, Cred has so far raised around $1 billion from Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, Peak XV Partners, Greenoaks Capital, DST Global and several others.
For Meta, this Cred investment, if it goes through, will be yet another bet after backing upstarts like Meesho and Unacademy in the past.
(Edited by : Gautham Krishna)
First Published: Jun 19, 2026 12:02 PM IST
Source link
