CRED To Acquire Happay To Make Business Payments Rewarding

As remote and flexible work blurs boundaries between professional and personal work, the expense management burden has increased significantly for both employers and employees. CRED, a high-trust platform for creditworthy individuals, banks, and merchants, and Happay, the market leader in corporate expense management in India, have agreed on terms for an acquisition of Happay by CRED. 

The move will bring in synergies between CRED, the majority of whose members are professionals who use it to manage personal payments across multiple credit cards, and Happay, the only unified platform for business expenses, payments, and travel bookings.

The acquisition is expected to be a cash and stock deal potentially valuing Happay at ~USD 180 million. While Happay will operate as a separate entity, the team will work closely with CRED leadership to leverage its ecosystem, build distribution, expand the product offering and drive scale. Happay’s 230-member team will get all the benefits extended to CRED team members, including its ESOP program.

Happay is a business expense, payments and travel management platform serving over 6,000 businesses. It manages work-related expenses for over 1 million users globally with ~USD 1 billion in annual spends, and is the leader in its category. Happay’s software stack and in-house payment engine along with its ease of use will complement the card management experience that CRED members enjoy for their personal expenses. It is the only unified platform that automates the spend management workflow, a trend that is set to explode in a contactless, paperless world, while ensuring compliance and visibility with an end-to-end audit trail.

Kunal Shah, founder, CRED, said, “Turning the pain of credit card management into a delight has enabled CRED to grow rapidly over the past three years. With professional expenses forming a significant portion of credit card spends, bringing professional expense management into the CRED ecosystem is a natural extension of our proposition. Happay’s product strength, customer experience, and vision align with our intent at CRED to reward responsible financial behaviour and we’re excited to partner them in their journey towards leading the category.” 

Anshul Rai, co-founder and CEO, Happay, said, “We’ve invested in building a category-defining product at Happay with thousands of customers who love the experience. The next phase of our growth will come from building scale, brand, and distribution. The CRED team’s experience in this regard is unparalleled, and we’re excited to learn and grow together.”