Meta has announced a historic change at the helm of WhatsApp, naming Indian entrepreneur Kunal Shah as the new chief executive of the popular messaging app. Shah, the founder and CEO of fintech firm CRED, replaces Will Cathcart, who after nearly seven years steps down to take on a new product-building role at Meta.
Meta's $900 million investment in CRED at a $4.5 billion valuation
Alongside the leadership change, Meta led a $900 million funding round in CRED, the Indian financial services company founded by Shah. The deal, structured through a mix of primary and secondary share purchases, makes Meta a minority investor in CRED. The post-money valuation is approximately $4.5 billion, up from $3.6 billion in a funding round in May 2025 but still below the peak of $6.4 billion in 2022. Shah will retain his personal stake in CRED but steps down as CEO, with Miten Sampat, who oversaw strategy and finance since 2020, taking over as interim chief executive.
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India as a key market for WhatsApp and digital payments
India is WhatsApp's largest market, with over 500 million users out of a global base of more than 3 billion. The country has emerged as a critical battleground for Meta's ambitions in business messaging and digital payments. Under Cathcart, WhatsApp expanded beyond private messaging with products like Communities, Channels, and AI integrations, while deepening its focus on business messaging. However, its push into digital payments with WhatsApp Pay has yielded mixed results: while it gained traction in India, it struggled to match the scale and engagement of local rivals such as PhonePe and Google Pay. Meta is betting that Shah's experience building a consumer internet company in India can unlock WhatsApp's next growth phase.
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Kunal Shah's background: From FreeCharge to CRED to WhatsApp
Kunal Shah founded CRED in 2018, a fintech platform with 17 million monthly active users, after previously building FreeCharge, one of India's early digital payments startups. Beyond his operating roles, Shah has become one of India's most prominent startup investors, backing over 250 companies and holding advisory positions. Mark Zuckerberg stated that Shah built CRED into "one of India's most important technology companies" and brings the "builder mentality and global perspective" needed to run the world's largest messaging app. The transition comes as Meta seeks to expand WhatsApp's business beyond messaging, particularly in payments, commerce, and business communications. India, as the largest market, is central to these efforts. CRED said its board is working on a longer-term management structure as the company prepares for an eventual IPO, with fresh capital expected to support growth across payments, lending, insurance, and wealth management.
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For more on Meta's investment strategies in digital infrastructure, read the related article on Inside Rogfast: The World's Deepest and Longest Subsea Tunnel and Flexible Data Centers for AI. Also, to understand the chip shortage impact on pricing, see iPhone 17 price hike imminent as Apple cites chip shortage. For more on Kunal Shah, visit his Wikipedia page.
