Meta has named entrepreneur Kunal Shah as the new chief of WhatsApp, betting on India for the messaging app’s next chapter. Shah replaces Will Cathcart, who steps down after nearly seven years to take a new product role at the company.
The appointment arrives alongside a Meta-led $900 million financing round for Shah’s Indian fintech company CRED. The deal mixes primary and secondary share purchases, making Meta a minority investor. Shah will step down as CRED chief executive while keeping his personal stake in the firm.
India matters here because it remains WhatsApp’s largest market. The country holds more than 500 million users, a major share of the app’s global base of over three billion people. India has also become a key battleground for Meta’s push into business messaging and digital payments.
Cathcart led WhatsApp since 2019 and oversaw rapid growth across the platform. He launched Communities, Channels, and new AI features while deepening the focus on business messaging. The app now counts more than 100 million users in the United States alone.
WhatsApp Pay tells a tougher story, though. The service gained ground in India but struggled to match local rivals PhonePe and Google Pay. Meta now bets that Shah’s experience building a consumer internet company can unlock that stalled payments growth.
Shah founded CRED in 2018 after building FreeCharge, an early Indian payments startup. CRED now serves 17 million monthly active users. Shah has also backed more than 250 companies as one of India’s most prominent startup investors.
Meta’s investment values CRED at about $4.5 billion, up from $3.6 billion in May 2025. Miten Sampat takes over as interim CEO immediately. CRED said the fresh capital will support its payments, lending, insurance, and wealth businesses as it prepares for an eventual public listing.
