Meta Platforms Inc is investing $900 million in Indian fintech startup Cred, and announced the appointment of its founder, Kunal Shah, as the new leader of WhatsApp.
Shah will replace the current head of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart, who has been running the popular messaging service for nearly seven years. He will be stepping down from his current position at Cred.
Bloomberg reported that Cathcart, who has seen WhatsApp’s user base double in size during his tenure, will remain at Meta but will move to a new role using artificial intelligence tools to develop consumer applications and products.
Kunal Shah was hired by Meta’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, who was looking for an entrepreneur from a country where WhatsApp already had a strong foothold.
Cox described Shah as “one of India’s most respected entrepreneurs, a serious thinker, and a very good person,” according to a statement released by a Meta spokesman. Shah currently lives in Bengaluru, but will be moving to the Bay Area in the US to work at Meta’s Menlo Park, California, headquarters.
“Kunal brings a deep understanding of how WhatsApp is integrated into people’s daily lives, along with a fresh perspective from outside of Meta and the mindset of the founder who built WhatsApp in the first place,” a statement from Meta announcing the move said.
She described him as “one of India’s most respected entrepreneurs” with a record of “building products that people love at scale”.
Investment path to employment
Cred’s investment gives Meta a roughly 20% stake in Cred, which operates an app that rewards customers for paying their credit card bills on time. The company is now valued at $4.5 billion, according to a press release.
The investment marks a new chapter for WhatsApp, one of the world’s largest messaging platforms. The app has grown significantly in recent years, surpassing 3 billion monthly users in 2025, though it is still early in the development of several new business lines, including advertising and subscriptions.
Building these revenue streams, as well as integrating AI agents into WhatsApp, will now fall to Shah, Creed’s 47-year-old founder.
Meta has used this investment recruiting strategy before to fill key leadership roles within the company. Last year, the company invested more than $14 billion in Scale AI and hired its founder, Alexander Wang, to take over Meta’s newly established AI lab.
“Kunal has built Cred into one of India’s hottest tech companies, and he brings the kind of builder mentality and global perspective that will serve him well in running the world’s largest massage app,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post.
“Chris Cox approached Kunal directly while searching for a leader who would embrace WhatsApp’s global product opportunity and could represent the needs of the people who rely on it every day. As a prolific writer and commentator, Kunal has long had strong opinions about how WhatsApp can become more useful in people’s lives,” the Meta statement added.
What did Kunal Shah say?
“While it has come a long way, the difference between WhatsApp today and its full potential is enormous. I look forward to working with Mark and Chris and leading the Meta for the next step in WhatsApp’s journey,” the statement quoted Kunal Shah as saying.
When stepping away from Cred, he said according to a company statement: “I started CRED in 2018 with the belief that creditworthiness is worth rewarding. In less than eight years, that belief has transformed into a new category: millions of members, ~ $3,200 Crores (~US$325 Million) in revenue, profitability, full suite of licenses and a strong brand. On this basis, and with additional capital and an exceptionally talented team, CRED is poised to become an enduring institution for decades to come. I stand back with gratitude and conviction that the team will continue to raise the bar.
Meta focus on India
Meta has made several investments in India over the past few years, one of its most important markets and a major hub for WhatsApp. The social media giant invested $5.7 billion in Jio Platforms in 2020, taking a 10% stake in the company as part of a drive to help increase commerce on WhatsApp. It also announced a deal earlier this month to lease its first AI-powered data center in India.
Founded in 2018, Cred offers consumers perks and rewards tied to their credit card payments. Its app, which has 17 million monthly users, can also analyze and track spending, according to its website. The company raised $75 million last year in a Series G funding round led by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, according to IBS Intelligence.
As part of its investment, Meta will provide primary and secondary capital, according to the press release, meaning it will purchase shares from some of Cred’s existing investors.
What will happen to Cred next?
Shah will join Meta full-time, stepping away from Cred, though he will remain a shareholder. Miten Sampat, the company’s leading strategy executive, will serve as interim CEO while the board reviews Cred’s leadership structure with an eye toward “an eventual IPO,” the press release said.
Meta does not hold a seat on the board and will not have access to Cred customer information, according to the Indian company.
1.7 lakh crore creditworthy Indians trust CRED to improve their relationship with money, said Mitin Sampat, Interim CEO of CRED. “We have a generational opportunity to build on Kunal’s vision and continually build toward becoming a public company. I’m excited to move CRED forward into the next chapter. We’re just getting started.”
(Bloomberg inputs)
