Meta Appoints CRED’s Kunal Shah as WhatsApp’s New Leader and Unveils $900 Million Investment in Startup
Meta is making a significant investment in India by appointing entrepreneur Kunal Shah as the new leader of WhatsApp, succeeding Will Cathcart, who will transition to a product development role after nearly seven years.
This decision coincides with Meta’s $900 million investment in the Indian fintech company CRED, combining primary and secondary share acquisitions. With this deal, Meta becomes a minority stakeholder in CRED, while Shah resigns as CEO but continues to hold his personal shares.
WhatsApp enjoys its largest user base in India, boasting over 500 million users, which constitutes a major part of its global audience exceeding three billion. The market is also crucial for Meta’s ambitions in business messaging and digital payments, both deemed essential for WhatsApp’s future growth.
Since taking the helm in 2019, Cathcart has overseen significant growth, helping WhatsApp become one of the most widely used messaging platforms, including over 100 million users in the U.S. His leadership saw the introduction of features like Communities, Channels, and AI integrations, which expanded WhatsApp’s focus beyond simple messaging to include business solutions.
However, WhatsApp’s foray into digital payments has met with mixed success. While WhatsApp Pay has gained some popularity in India, it has fallen short of matching the scale and user engagement found in local competitors like PhonePe and Google Pay, indicating substantial potential for future expansion in one of the largest payment markets globally.
Meta believes that Shah’s background in consumer internet companies in India will be instrumental in propelling WhatsApp’s next growth phase.
In a statement, CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighted Shah’s success in establishing CRED as a vital player in India’s tech landscape, noting his valuable ‘builder mentality’ and global vision necessary for steering the world’s largest messaging app.
This appointment aligns with Meta’s strategy to broaden WhatsApp’s services beyond messaging, particularly focusing on payments, commerce, and business communications. With India being its most significant market, these efforts are a priority.
Shah founded CRED in 2018, which has grown to 17 million active users monthly, following his earlier entrepreneurial success with FreeCharge, one of India’s pioneering digital payment platforms. Beyond his operational roles, he is also a notable angel investor in the Indian startup ecosystem, having supported over 250 ventures and holding key advisory roles across technology and financial services.
Meta’s investment places CRED’s valuation at approximately $4.5 billion. Previously, the fintech company was valued at about $3.6 billion in May 2025 during a funding round, which was below its peak of $6.4 billion in 2022. CRED had raised over $1 billion from investors before its Series F funding.
As part of this management transition, Miten Sampat, who has led CRED’s strategy and finance since 2020, will become the interim CEO immediately. Shah remains a shareholder while stepping back from daily operations.
CRED indicated that its leadership team is working on a long-term management strategy as the company gears up for a potential initial public offering, utilizing the new funds to bolster its operations in payments, lending, insurance, and wealth management.
