about CRED

CRED is a lifestyle-based fintech focusing on the top 1% (actually 3%) of India’s population. this was based on kunal shah’s understanding of the top population basis the passenger car owners or credit card users, about 50 million of them.

started from being a credit card bill payment service, CRED has evolved into a premium fintech providing access to low interest loans, payments, credit card management, financial analysis, vehicle management services, and rewards through other lifestyle programs with store and escapes (luxury trips).

building on their ‘premium’ ideology, they have targeted users with a good credit score (more than 750) and have positioned themselves as a members only club (just the way GrowthX does). lastly, CRED is looking to build more products and services that help their target audience, with the goal of monetising its users as they near the habituation phase.

for reference, here’s the wealth pyramid they’re gung ho for.

questionnaire

​goal: to understand the users lifestyles in order to embed CRED's services

approach: understanding their psychographics and preferences by delving deep into the user's financial habits

demographics and psychographics

• name, gender, and age
• education, and occupation (and industry)
• relationship status, location (place of stay) and who they live with
• income bracket and sources of income
• devices used (iOS or android, macOS or windows)
• where do you spend your time?
• what platforms do you use and what kind of content do you consume?
• what are the payment modes you use? (understanding the financial instruments used)
• what all subscriptions do you have?

lifestyle

• how much do you spend monthly? how much of it is from credit cards?
• what are things you'd want to buy? how frequently do you shop and where do you shop from? are there specific brands you love?
• what all purchases are driven by your partners? what do they do in their day? (understanding their influencers and blockers)
• what are your top spends on credit cards? (basis monthly, quarterly, and yearly)
• what do you value more, time or money?
• do you drink? what brands do you drink from frequently? what is the brand you'd want to drink? (understanding lifestyle upgrade preferences, i.e., from red to black to blue label)
• how frequently do you travel

credit worthiness

• how may credit cards do you own?
• what are the kind of credit cards you own? (understanding the card level, i.e., premium cards share)
• what types of credit cards do you use? (e.g., rewards, travel, cashback, utilities)
• do you track your spends and purchases timely?
• what is your credit score? (specifically, experian score)

finance apps

• list down all the finance apps you use?
• are you specifically using these for a motive, if so, what's that?
• how did you discover the apps that you use currently? how did you go about choosing the one that you did?
• what aspect of your current app is more important to you? (options include ease of use, support, integration with multiple accounts, etc.)
• on a scale of 1-5 (5 being the highest) how would you rate the trust on the apps that you use?
• how do you stay in touch with current trends and updates by these apps?

CRED's impression

for potential users

• have you heard about CRED before?
• what do you think CRED offers?
• what would make you switch to CRED?
• is there any hesitation with choosing CRED currently, if so, what?
• do you think you can benefit from CRED if you switch to it?

management of credit

• how do you manage your credit cards usually?
• what were the sources of management before CRED? (current and churned users)
• what has been incrementally better post CRED? (current and churned users)

about CRED

acquisition specific

• how did you discover CRED?
• what made you try CRED? were there other services you considered exploring before trying CRED? (understanding the value-prop perceived and competition)

onboarding specific

• how easy was to be onboarded onto the platform?
• was the process to link your cards and accounts easy?
• were there any confusion points during the onboarding? (considering it to be an exclusive club)
• is there something you hoped for that would've made this experience better? (options include adequate support, walkthrough, multiple steps, information, simpler onboarding with less details, others)

engagement and retention specific

• what problems has CRED solved for you?
• what is your most used feature on the app? (extension: what is the most important feature for you currently?)
• how frequently do you interact with CRED?
• what are the services you use on the platform? (options include upi, card management, store, garage, escapes, money, mint, etc.)
• do you use CRED coins? how valuable are they for you?
• good(s) and the bad(s) about CRED?
• is there something that you aren't able to find on the app?
• why did you leave CRED? anything that would make you come back to the app? (for churned users)
• what are features that might make you engage more / bring your back on CRED?
• how is / was your experience with the app?

monetisation specific

• if CRED starts charging you for the services they provide, would you consider paying for it?
• what would you be willing to pay for, and how much?
• have you considered other apps that you might shift to possibly?
• what is one thing that you innately believe CRED provides you value for?

escapes

• how frequently do you travel in a year?
• how many of those are leisure trips?
• how many of those are foreign trips?
• what kind of hotels do you stay in?
• what does a typical leisure travel entail for you? how many days is it typically for?
• how much do you specifically spend for your trip? how does the split look like across categories?
• have you explored escapes on CRED?
• how was your experience like? what extras did you get from your travel?

summary

• is there anything you'd want to share in general?
• any pain points you go through when it comes to finances and money?

icp(eace)

note: i spoke to ~8 users of CRED for devising the icps based on the personas that came more frequently (and were prioritised)

growth goal

improve new user acquisition by 30% (increase 3.5 million) in the next 12 months! (more about their new user problem here)

current run rate: 13 million users over the past 18 months​

sub-lever

overview

insights

basis the user calls and the market research done, these were a few insights received into travel patterns:

• foreign travel has increased 4x in the last decade and about 380 million international travels take place every year (source)
• more than 50% of lrs is being contributed through foreign travel, about $17 billion annually (source)
• funds and monetary compliance is the most common reason for rejection of visas (source)
• CRED's icp travels to at least 1 international destination every year (basis user calling insights)

icps targeted

in order of priority of targeting users,

1. arya - arya, a frequent traveller for work and otherwise is a modern-nomad that works from anywhere or frequently travels for work visiting more than 3 countries every year
2. ahaan - ahaan, a startup bro, has sufficient funds in order to make an international travel and does about 2 trips annually
3. aisha - aisha, a first job employee, who wish to study abroad, go for a trip with friends or look for 'travelling the world' are use cases to target as needs arise

sub-lever and rationale - why integration?

the idea is to do a product integration of atlys with CRED, wherein new users who are looking to travel internationally can access a whole host of services from through CRED, while also engaging its existing users. rationale behind the same is detailed below:

why atlys?

• founded recently in 2021, atlys is a promising startup in this space garnering ~450k unique impressions every month - about 19k app downloads daily (source: sensortower)
• atlys is a one time use case product (visas on time) and lacks an engagement play, and CRED can provide the engagement play through its offerings
• with the feature embedded to create a holistic escapes' offering it helps atlys access CREDs premium user base
• integration can help CRED acquire new users for building onto their growth playbook, while allowing atlys to serve a larger customer base
• icp overlap is the main reason for this integration because maximum visas issued are on use cases specific to study, travel, and work, and all three are being covered through CRED's icp buckets prioritised accordingly
• brand value fit is high in this integration because of the crema-de-la-creme user experience by seamlessly combining luxury financial management with streamlined visa solutions, aligning with both brands' commitment to convenience, innovation, and global accessibility

solution

• document and compliance is the most common reason for visa cancellations and the embassies do not have more insights on one's finances, apart from the submitted statements like credit scores
• international travellers are more likely to use a new app/service that allows them for a stress free trip planning experience which can lead to faster activations for CRED
• by providing access to a person's credit score, bank statements, and other required documents (sourced from digilocker), CRED can make this process almost automatic (with user consent, data sharing is allowed under dpdp act, 2023 - source)
• through this integration, CRED can almost guarantee a visa to the user segments, i.e., no stress, pure bliss
• CRED escapes is one such product on the platform that allows users to book luxury travel by providing them with a discounted price, opportunities for further cashbacks, and extra benefits, like a champagne on the house - with visas integrated, it is a great opportunity to cross sell its other offerings to new users like credit card management, financial analysis, vehicle management, among others

user journey flow

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hypothesis

integrating with atlys allows CRED to access and acquire new users 3x more (assumption: from their current activation rates dropping on day 3 - basis product research) and also build on their engagement play with existing users as they are more likely to use atlys and escapes for their international travel (more ecosystem products being used) and incremental revenue opportunities. with an aha moment in their international travel experience, this will lead to more domestic booking via escapes and this will lead to more stickiness of the CRED ecosystem

roll out plan

gtm

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potential risks and mitigation

• tech integration to user experience
• • will be mitigated through a phased approach with limited access and a dedicated support team to handle grievances
• lower adoption of the feature
• • will be mitigated through cohortised targeting and retargeting through paid ads, offering higher rewards and iterations
• brand alignment
• • will be mitigated through better alignment of value prop and messaging, and a seamless in app experience

metrics to track

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impact analysis

for achieving the initial set goal of 50% increase in new user acquisitions in the next 12 months, it essentially adds ~3.5 million users to the platform

by the way, this was kunal's moonshot idea in 2019, executable as listed above. (watch the video here)

fin.