Meta names CRED founder Kunal Shah as new WhatsApp chief

Meta is appointing Kunal Shah to lead WhatsApp, succeeding Will Cathcart, who is stepping down as chief of the messaging platform. Simultaneously, Meta is leading a $900 million financing round for CRED, the Indian fintech company founded by Shah in 2018. As part of the transaction, Shah will step down as chief executive of CRED, while Miten Sampat, who has overseen strategy and finance at the startup since 2020, will take over as interim chief executive. Meta’s investment values CRED at about $4.5 billion on a post-money basis—which refers to the valuation of a company after external financing is completed.

The leadership transition underscores the strategic importance of India to Meta’s global operations. India represents WhatsApp’s largest market, with more than 500 million users out of a global user base of over 3 billion people. The messaging service has also expanded in the United States, where it has more than 100 million users. Under Cathcart, who began leading WhatsApp in 2019, the platform expanded its features to include business messaging, payments, and commerce, which Meta views as critical to its global growth.

In a statement, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Shah possesses a “builder mentality and global perspective” that will guide the messaging app’s next phase. Zuckerberg also noted that Shah had built CRED into one of India’s most important technology companies. Shah has been a prominent figure in India’s startup ecosystem, backing more than 250 companies. He built CRED into a platform that now has 17 million monthly active users.

The fresh capital from the Series F financing—a specific round of venture capital financing—will support CRED as it prepares for an eventual initial public offering, which is the process of offering shares of a private corporation to the public in a new stock issuance. The transaction reshapes CRED’s valuation history:

• Current valuation: About $4.5 billion on a post-money basis following this Meta-led round.
• May 2025 valuation: About $3.6 billion in its previous funding round.
• 2022 peak valuation: $6.4 billion.

Prior to this Series F round, CRED had raised more than $1 billion from investors.

Why it matters

Meta is betting that Shah’s experience building a consumer internet company in India can help unlock WhatsApp’s next phase of growth, particularly in areas such as payments, commerce, and business communications.