CRED is introducing a buy now pay later service and a tap-to-pay feature as the Indian fintech platform broadens its offerings to increase engagement and monetization on the platform.
With Cred Flash, the startup headquartered in Bengaluru, buy now pay later, customers can pay seamlessly through the app and at more than 500 partner merchants, including Swiggy, Zepto and Urban Company, and clear the account free of charge within 30 days settle .
The custom credit provided to customers allows them to pay and top up bills and make other expenses with a single swipe and without having to wait for an OTP authentication code, said the startup, which is valued at more than $6 billion. The service, powered by RBI-registered NBFC Parfait Finance and Investments Pvt Limited, will initially be rolled out to a select group of customers, the startup said.
The BNPL product is the latest in a series of new offerings from CRED in recent years as it works to make its eponymous fintech app a bigger part of its customers’ lives.
The startup, which also offers its customers the ability to lend money to each other on the platform at “inflation beating” rates, last year launched Scan and Pay, its fast UPI QR payments that allow customers to earn rewards for every transaction they make. sellers have done and also protect their identities by using aliases.
CRED, which has amassed 16 million users, started life as a credit card bill tracking and payment utility. It serves some of India’s most reliable customers, as the app only onboard those with a credit score of at least 750. This threshold has made CRED a more viable testbed for additional financial services, even if those offers have been available for years on other platforms. to exist.
A handful of startups in India offer buy now pay later services, but many of the prominent names in the category, including Zip-backed ZestMoney, are struggling financially as they mainly target an audience with a lean history of credit bureaus.
CRED said it is also rolling out a tap-to-pay feature that will allow users to make payments through their credit cards with their phones by tapping the terminal. The feature, which is first rolling out to NFC-enabled Android smartphones, requires members to unlock their phones before tapping the merchant’s PoS machine.
“Tap to Pay meets CRED members’ need for a fast, simple and secure offline payment experience. Tap to Pay uses secure card tokenization technology to store card tokens on the device.” said the startup.
The startup, backed by Sequoia India, QED, Tiger Global and Ribbit, is aggressively focusing on growing its revenue while generating more revenue, founder and CEO Kunal Shah said in an interaction earlier this year. “Members are working on multiple products. And the monetization kind of puts us in the right direction,” he said.