Cred, according to Kunal Shah, is a TrustTech firm rather than a FinTech, and his motivation for founding Cred stems from his desire to address trust issues in Indian society, which he believes is critical to economic growth.
Kunal Shah was born on May 20, 1983, in Mumbai, Maharashtra, to Gujarati parents. His father was a merchant, while his mother was an insurance agent.
Kunal began assisting his father in his business at a young age. Rohan Shah is his brother. He graduated from Wilson College in Mumbai with a BA in Philosophy. He later dropped out of Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai to pursue an MBA. Kunal, the founder of CRED, began working at the age of 15 to help support his family over a financial crisis.
He began working as a Data Entry Operator and has since become financially independent. Kunal afterwards abandoned his Data Entry job and went full-time to teach at several internet institutes, where he used to surf the internet all night.
Kunal intended to go into engineering or medicine after finishing high school, but because he was working part-time, he couldn’t focus on his studies and couldn’t get into either.
As a result, he decided to pursue a B.A. in Philosophy. Kunal used to sell unlicensed music CDs and mehandi cones to finance his college expenses while studying. Later, he ran a modest cybercafé from his house and ran a variety of other enterprises. Aside from all of these side hustles, Kunal was also employed.
Kunal began his career as a programmer at a .com business in 2000. Unfortunately, this firm did not succeed, thus he eventually joined another startup, Net4Pharma.
Kunal afterwards worked for a number of businesses for several years. He met Sandeep Tandon while working at one of the businesses. His supervisor was Sandeep Tandon, who eventually collaborated with him to launch Freecharge.
Kunal founded the PaisaBack website in 2009. This website used to offer cashbacks, coupons, and other incentives for online buying. PaisaBack later assisted him in launching Freecharge. Kunal and Sandeep Tandon started Freecharge on August 15, 2010.
Kunal was inspired by the IRCTC website, which enticed consumers to book tickets online, and he believed Freecharge would do the same for prepaid mobile top ups. He was the CEO and Chairman of Freecharge, which was acquired by Snapdeal in 2015 for around $450 million.
Axis bank purchased Free Charge from Snapdeal for $60 Million in 2017.
Even though Kunal had worked for a number of organizations, he was dissatisfied and desired to establish (start) his own. So, after declining Sequoia Capital’s invitation to become a partner, he started CRED, a fintech startup, in April 2018.
The headquarters of this company are in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Kunal Shah has a happy marriage. His wife is a professional graphic designer named Bhavna Shah. Kunal Shah picked a life partner who understands the digital world over marrying a housewife since he is a Techie or Tech man.
Awards and recognitions-
In 2015 and 2016, Kunal was featured in the Fortune India 40 under 40 list.
In 2016, he was featured in the Economic Times 40 under Forty list and also received the Comeback award from Economic Times.
Kunal Shah is well-known for his in-depth knowledge of the Indian market, consumer behavior, and ability to develop unique solutions that appeal to the masses. CRED has become one of India’s most successful financial firms under his leadership, and it continues to expand its user base and capabilities.
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