Fintech leader CRED has ventured into the luxury travel sector with the introduction of "CRED Escapes," a curated platform offering exceptional trave
Fintech leader CRED has ventured into the luxury travel sector with the introduction of “CRED Escapes,” a curated platform offering exceptional travel experiences, accommodations, and exclusive perks for its users. The platform provides various privileges, including spa credits, room upgrades, and access to theme parks, as CRED continues its trend of innovative launches.
CRED users can utilize their CRED coins to redeem stays and access member-exclusive privileges on CRED Escapes, the recently launched luxury travel platform by the fintech company. To deliver outstanding travel experiences, CRED plans to collaborate with hotel brands and travel partners, leveraging the expertise of experienced travelers to create engaging video content that attracts more users to the platform. Abhay Pruthi, Head of CRED Commerce, stated that the platform’s goal is to offer a seamless travel experience to creditworthy users, featuring carefully selected accommodations, abundant inspiration, and member-exclusive benefits.
CRED Escapes boasts a portfolio of over 300 hotels and resorts across 50 different locations on its platform. This expansion coincides with CRED’s recent efforts to diversify its offerings and mitigate losses. In the previous month, the fintech unicorn launched CRED Flash, a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) service, and introduced tap-to-pay functionality for retail payments using credit cards.
Despite other digital payment leaders offering UPI payment features for years, CRED introduced UPI payments on its app in October 2022. This strategic move is part of CRED’s plan to boost revenue and create additional income streams through the merchant discount rate (MDR) and interest income. The launch of new verticals by the fintech unicorn aligns with its growing losses. In FY22, CRED reported a net loss of INR 1,279 crore, marking a year-on-year increase of 2.4 times, while revenue from operations surged by 4.4 times year-on-year to INR 393.5 crore.
CRED faces competition from major fintech players like Paytm, PhonePe, and Google Pay, but it specifically targets a niche segment of high-credit-score users. By introducing its luxury travel platform, CRED may be aiming to capture a portion of the travel tech industry’s market share, which is currently dominated by players such as MakeMyTrip, EaseMyTrip, and Yatra.
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