A decade ago, who would have thought that paying your credit card bills on time could help you earn rewards and cashback? The people who were once credit card defaulters were optimistically pushed to pay their dues in exchange for tangible perks. What earlier seemed like coerced spending soon became a secure source of earning for credit card users.

Bengaluru-based CRED made it happen.

In the words of its founder Kunal Shah, “Nobody has been rewarded for paying back on time. We want to fix that.” And just like that, an ambitious entrepreneur with a non-tech background unearthed a crucial loophole in the credit card payment system and rose to the surface by launching a cutting-edge problem-solving application CRED in 2018. Today, both Shah and his brainchild have earned a place in the sun for establishing a first-of-its-kind platform valued at $4.01 billion (2021), an appraisement that most start-ups have taken over a decade to achieve.