Cred
Cred is truly a topic of surprise for me. Yes, I understand it has created a community of top spenders/credit worthy people in India. I also understand that they can use the information on such people for creating value for themselves. Being a cred user, I only use it to pay the bills. I really wonder if they have built any b2b business or alternative source of income beyond what's seen to the end user. What's the game plan for the cred? I also applaud the fact that cred hasn't laid off people having paid them better than most companies. I really wonder if the business is really that strong or the conviction is. Would you join cred if given a chance to work there?
I feel cred is doomed and just trying to increase its value.
And the end goal is to sell the cred to someone with higher value and make money.
doodle
Stealth
a year ago
Damn, I think that is a good point. It's trying to sell in the end.
BlindNest
Stealth
a year ago
You are saying Kunal Shah is playing bluff :p
He is gotta be damn good because times are extremely bad for playing bluff. Many genuine founders are cutting costs just to be cautious
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It is doomed. If they layoff I hope they fire the UI/UX design first for such an atrocious app design
BlindNest
Stealth
a year ago
Bro I wish no one gets laid off but rather all have to understand how to make sustainable businesses. Indian tech ecosystem is already thrashed too bad đ
And funny enough they pride themselves with good design and authority on it đ
Watsay49
Stealth
a year ago
Lending is the business here
BlindNest
Stealth
a year ago
Thanks for the reply. Yeah, that seems really straightforward. The app does show ecommerce a lot. Do you think that's an important business for the company? Is the focus on advertising or selling?
Watsay49
Stealth
a year ago
If you read Kunal Shah's tweets, he mentions the strategy although not discreetly. E-com, cc and bill/UPI payments are for engagement so cred becomes like a toothbrush (to be used daily). And when the day comes when you need loan, you will take it from cred vs random app
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I can bet if the need arises, the cred guys will raise another round even in this market, they're not going anywhere until their supreme leader decides to stop caring đ¤Łđ¤Ł
BlindNest
Stealth
a year ago
Bro how do you have such a faith in the supreme leader?
I don't have faith in him, I feel it's his pull among investors,
Somewhat just like selmon bhoi has his fanbase which leads to producers thror money at him regardless of movie logic.
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Umadbro
Stealth
a year ago
Itâs a weird scenario. Most Indian investors came in at seed when the product or the market wasnât even figured out. They just heard Kunal shah was leaving sequoia to start something, and basically begged him, sucked on him to take their money. No thesis, nothing. So we will continue to see a lot of pr. If i remember correctly, sajith pai published a whole report trying to justify credâs market (called it something about India).
The endgame is likely first all investors exciting quietly by building up the hype in intl market and bringing in a bigger investor. It has one of the biggest cap tables in the world. Like with oyo. Then they hope to sell it to an international fintech player which can do well with access to a portion of top 1% Indians.
MorseHorse
Stealth
a year ago
Yes! A lot of companies that canât convince any domestic investors look for foreign investors who are impressed by large DAU and GMV figures
Umadbro
Stealth
a year ago
Itâs not about convincing Indian investors. Wo to seed me hi ho gya tha. Now these investors are pitching for him. No fund left in india who hasnât already invested but would invest at the scale.
So best hope is ki keep creating hype, suppress negative news, talk up the company, so that foreign company gives these investors an exit.
I would join. Much better than EdTech. Business is not that straight but if u survive long enough with active user base, it becomes easier to extract money. Just my thought
BlindNest
Stealth
a year ago
To survive long enough, won't you need a very good cashflow or big investment? What do you think they have to survive?
They have Cred-ibility. Users are pretty much potential customers in whatever direction they go. One of it is lending or other is travel related. Theyâll add more products to survive
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NoNewThing
Stealth
a year ago
Cred will mostly do well. They have built a sizeable and sticky community with high retention numbers. Monetisation is yet to be figured out completely, but they have started experimenting. They started with personal loans and have a $1B+ book. They have also started partnerships with brands for luxury travel and would continue to experiment ways to monetise its user base.
While, it has lost its sheen, as far as perceptions are concerned, I believe that the startup is still young (founded in 2018) and will do very well in the future as they figure out monetisation, while being buoyed by strong macroeconomic tailwinds in India, as the economy and discretionary spending grows.
I feel that an inflection point would come in Credâs journey, wherein its revenues finally catchup with its valuation. Hoping for the best here.
Bakwasmaal
Stealth
a year ago
CRED has an interesting business model that is potent for commercialising
1. Exploratory commerce - you look at the market place in general and figure out what others are buying - in your economic strata or above and below - apart from Amazon, Flipkart some brands have 20-30% revenue coming via CRED
2. Gamification of commerce through CRED coins which are also potent channels for stimulating buying
3. Tie ups and deals with brands bringing exclusivity and improving retention and fee based income
I think there is a brilliant story shaping up there!
MorseHorse
Stealth
a year ago
Not much of a story when it comes down to final numbers. What youâve mentioned are more like desperate attempts to make money by terrible product leadership
MildMusic68
Stealth
a year ago
There's hardly any money to be made from Indian consumers
When there's no money with people, the best business where a large population is there is to lend them, so people start creating opportunities for themselves
Now you have to start somewhere... what's your GTM... when there were already incumbents in Paytm phone pe and legacy banks
Create a nin existent criteria and fomo to get started (High cred score) also manages the initial risk of lending to non worthy
Now once you have it rolling you lower the barrier and start introducing all financial services one after the other
To have them hooked, and being non loyal create gamification, blah blah
Till here game is good
From here if I knew how they would sustain, I would be Kunal
PS : though not profitable, they have huge revenue
If it becomes the default financial app like how Paytm, phonepe is or even a sizable market share, they win ig right
When there were huge incumbents and literally no one could take a slice of the pie a late entrant doing well is genius
The real answer:
Pretty much all verticals of CRED (like bill pay, ecommerce, rewards etc) are for consumer engagement. They do not make (or plan to make) any meaningful income from these avenues.
Their forerunner in revenue is Rent Pay (yep). The margins are good good!
A truckload of people use Rent Pay to cash out their credit cards, and CRED allows this, as they make a margin out of the payment. There are other genuine users nevertheless.
Lending is the game. Yes folks, that's correct.
They're launching their own Credit Card by January.
They're also working on a payment gateway, and setting up new verticals which can actually be profitable.
Everything until now is pretty much a gimmick.
I think they would like to identify who are the wealthy indians and then help premium brand companies target those customers.
Banks (top pvt sector banks) too would want to know who are wealthy customers and poach them from competition.
Once the customers start taking deals, you come to know more about the purchase behaviour of the customers. Companies would like to know which competitors are the customers buying from.
WellâŚcorrect me if I am wrongâŚwhat according to me seems like CREDâs business model.
CRED created a community of the top 1% spenders in India(people who can splurge).
1. Now, using that as a channel, brands are marketing their products on CRED. I am not sure how much revenue is generated from there though.
2. Lending - Giving loans at a slightly lower rate than banks with ease of application and disbursement, thereby giving instant gratification to consumers.
3. CRED Mint - Allowing users to park their funds and get good enough returns compared to other instruments(not comparing other P2P products or equities here). CRED mint is meant to compete with the likes of RDs/FDs/Debt funds/Liquid Funds.
I often browse through CRED for deals and new products availability.
I use CRED for payments of my CC bills.
Maybe someone from CRED can throw some light here.
FunnyPlanula
Stealth
a year ago
Great place to cruise and do no work. Easy to hide. Drink good coffee and work on your own idea.
Superinvestor
Student
a year ago
Bnpl could be a good option provided the already excellent credit score users on platform.
But these folks have good income and might not require the service altogether.
Broadly lending is a way to go but there is a lot of upside risk in it altogether.
BossyCompost
Stealth
a year ago
Lending is the game. I use it to pay my CC bills but more so to invest in Cred Mint (p2p lending with 9% returns)
Same money goes to borrowers apart from the NBFC stuff.
Lend to best people(good credit score)
Fintech space mei mostly dhandha lending se hi banta hai aur banega. Baaki sab engagement ke tareeke hai.
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