Fintech unicorn CRED has reported a 256 per cent growth in revenue from operations to ₹1,484 crore for FY23, from ₹422 crore in the year-ago period.
The fintech’s losses grew marginally to ₹1,347 crore in FY23 from ₹1,280 crore in FY22. According to the company, it has reduced its customer acquisition cost by around 80 per cent over the past four years.
The Bengaluru-based company noted that one-third of credit card bill payments (by value) are done on the CRED platform. The platform’s noted 77 per cent increase in total payment value to ₹4.4-lakh crore in FY23 from ₹2.5-lakh crore in FY22. The monthly transacting users grew by over 58 per cent.
The firm’s marketing expenses lowered by 27 per cent to ₹713 crore in the fiscal ending March 2023, from ₹976 crore in FY22. CRED’s expenses grew to ₹2,832 crore in FY23, a 66 per cent increase over the ₹1,702 crore reported in FY22. It ESOP costs grew to ₹300 crore in FY23.
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“Our focus on rewarding good behaviour strengthened growth momentum in FY23, with new products and features contributing to higher engagement with members. We will continue the momentum to get close to overall profitability and meaningful revenue scale,” said Kunal Shah, founder of CRED.
The company further said that prudent financial behaviour is becoming a habit for the top 1 per cent of the population, and has helped the company to post strong financial performance.
CRED said an average monthly transacting user (MTU) performs around 20 sessions on the platform, which may include credit card bill payments, other utility bill payments, money transfers, and merchant transactions through UPI and others. The firm has been expanding its UPI payments game over the last year and now is the fourth largest [by value] UPI app in India
Valuation
Founded by Kunal Shah in 2018, CRED was valued at more than $6 billion last year and has around 12 million users.
“We strengthened the platform with more touchpoints for members to engage with CRED at a higher frequency in FY22-23. This resulted in significantly higher engagement that created monetisation opportunities while reducing the cost of attracting and serving members,” said CRED.