India has emerged as WhatsApp’s largest market, with the platform possessing more than 500 million users while expanding beyond messaging into payments and business services in the South Asian giant. As per Zuckerberg’s announcement, Will Cathcart, the current head of WhatsApp, will move to ⁠a new role within Meta after seven years leading the messaging service.

Announcing Shah’s appointment, Zuckerberg said, “Kunal Shah will join Meta as WhatsApp’s next leader. Kunal built CRED into one of India’s most important technology companies, and he brings the kind of builder mentality and global perspective that will serve him well in running the world’s biggest messaging app. I look forward to working with Kunal to continue to make WhatsApp the best service for billions of people and millions of businesses.”

Meta’s investment into Cred (formed in 2018) is also one of the largest into India’s fintech sector in recent years. While the valuation surpassed the USD 3.5 billion mark, registered by CRED in its last funding round in 2025, it came lower than its 2022 peak of USD 6.4 billion.

The deal gives Meta a minority stake in Bengaluru-based CRED without allowing the Silicon Valley tech giant access to CRED customer ‌data. Talking about CRED, the latter operates a members-only platform for consumers with high credit scores, through which it offers products spanning payments, lending, insurance, wealth management, and lifestyle services.

As per the company, it serves 17 million members on a monthly basis, apart from processing more than 40% of India’s ⁠credit card bill payments and managing over 240 billion rupees (USD 2.5 billion) of lending assets for partner financial institutions.

While CRED will be using the freshly raised capital to accelerate its organizational growth, it will also strengthen its leadership and ⁠institutional capabilities, apart from expanding across product categories. Miten Sampat, who has led strategy and finance at CRED since 2020, has been appointed interim CEO.

Shah, who will be transitioning from fintech founder to the CEO of a popular global messaging platform, is known as an entrepreneur, angel investor, and one of the most influential figures in India’s startup ecosystem. He first came into prominence in 2009 by establishing a cashback promotions company, PaisaBack, which he later described as the key business model inspiring the formation of FreeCharge, which Shah, along with Sandeep Tandon, created in 2010.

In April 2015, Snapdeal announced the acquisition of FreeCharge in a cash-and-stock deal widely reported to be about 2,800 crore rupees (roughly USD 400–450 million). By 2022, as per the Mint, Shah was among India’s most active angel investors by number of deals during the year. Another 2021 Moneycontrol profile reported making more than 200 angel investments, including stakes in fintech companies such as Razorpay and BharatPe.

Shah, who also featured in Fortune India’s 40 Under 40 list in 2016, graduated with a degree in philosophy from Wilson College. He later got enrolled in an MBA program at Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. However, he left the course midway to pursue entrepreneurship. Known best for his first-principles method of problem-solving, Shah’s interviews, speeches, and social media posts have earned him a cult status among Indian founders, investors, and business leaders.

Sha will be relocating to California’s Menlo Park, where he will work from Meta’s headquarters while shaping the future of WhatsApp.

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“I don’t think I should be paid well until the business is successful. My monthly income at CRED is Rs 15,000,” Kunal Shah remarked in an Instagram post.

“There are CEOs who receive salaries in the millions of dollars, but Kunal Shah,” a Twitter user commented, sharing a screenshot of Kunal Shah’s Instagram story.

When asked why CRED has yet to gain profit, Kunal Shah replied, “Most venture-funded companies are built differently than typical businesses that trade where you buy cheap and sell goods with some margin. Tech companies invest capital for several years to make large distribution and engagement before monetizing. India is in the early stages of understanding venture funding and tech startups and will continue to mock loss-making companies.”

“We shouldn’t forget 90% of funded companies may die as it may fail to monetize or make profits, but mocking risk-takers will only create a government job-seeking mindset,” he added.

Meanwhile, CRED is rolling out a buy now and pay later service and a ‘Tap To Pay’ feature as the fintech platform broadens its offerings to boost engagement and monetization on its portal.

CRED flash will allow the customers to make seamless payments on the app and across over 500 partner merchants, including Swiggy, Zepto and Urban Company and clear the bill at no charge in 30 days.

The customized credit extended to customers will allow them to make bill payments and recharges and other expenses with a single swipe and without waiting for an OTP authentication code, said the startup, which is reportedly valued at over USD 6 billion. The service, powered by Reserve Bank of India-registered NBFC Parfait Finance and Investments Pvt Limited, will initially roll out the BNPL to a select group of customers.

In 2022, the startup launched ‘Scan and Pay’, its fast UPI QR payments that allow customers to earn rewards for each transaction they made to merchants and also protect their identities.

CRED, which has some 16 million users, started its operations as a utility tool for tracking and paying credit card bills. The app is currently onboard only those who have at least a 750 credit score.

A handful of startups in India offer buy now and pay later services, but many of the prominent names in the category, including Zip-backed ‘ZestMoney’, are struggling as they cater to a user base with thin credit bureau history.

CRED’s ‘Tap To Pay’ feature will allow its users to make payments through their credit cards with their phones with a tap on the terminal machine. The feature will be rolled out first to NFC-enabled Android smartphones and the users will require members to unlock their phones before they tap on the merchant’s PoS machine.

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