Kunal Shah: Fintech Unicorn CEO Invests in 80 Startups to Foster Ecosystem Growth

• ByStartupStory     |    September 8, 2023

Kunal Shah, the Founder and CEO of fintech unicorn Cred, has disclosed that he has invested in approximately 80 fintech startups, typically with an average investment of $50,000 per startup.

“I do not have any mutual funds or any stocks, I only invest in startups as a way of paying it forward. I don’t invest necessarily for financial returns, it’s about just helping the system move forward,” said Shah in a conversation with CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan at the Global Fintech Fest 2023, on September 8.

Kunal Shah’s investments have included early backing for fintech unicorn Razorpay, as well as other companies like M2P Fintech, Jupiter, and Coinswitch, according to data from Tracxn.

While earlier, Shah said he would meet startup founders to make investment decisions, he now has discussions over email or WhatsApp and makes his decisions.

“If you can create 1000 high-quality founders, and they also learn to pay it forward, it will convert the country from job seekers to job creators. That’s going to be an immense moment for us to have,” he added.

To be sure, Shah has held the title of the most active angel investor in the Indian startup ecosystem over the last two years. In December 2022, Sources reported that the Cred chief once again topped the list of angel investors funding the most deals in a year with 67 investments this year, citing Venture Intelligence data.

During the session, he shared his bullishness towards new-age financial services startups and said that without such loss-making companies, the Indian fintech ecosystem could not have achieved its current level of growth at a time when the startup ecosystem seems to have shifted its focus from growth to profitability.

“We are used to only industrialists being treated as business people… We need to celebrate risk-takers. Unless we do that, we are not going to break out as a country and I think that is one big change that we need to go through,” Shah added.

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