WhatsApp gets a new boss: Why Meta is betting big on CRED founder Kunal Shah

WhatsApp is getting a new leader and for the first time one of India’s best known startup founders will be at the helm of the world’s largest messaging platform.

Meta announced that Kunal Shah, founder of CRED, is joining the company as the new global head of WhatsApp as part of a wide-ranging strategic partnership, which also involves the Bengaluru fintech firm getting a $900 million investment from the company. The shift is one of the largest leadership changes at WhatsApp in years and represents a focus on artificial intelligence, payments, and monetization throughout the messaging ecosystem for Meta.

Meta also holds about 20 percent of the shares in CRED, which is worth approximately $4.5 billion.

Why WhatsApp leadership is changing?

Kunal Shah will replace Will Cathcart, who has been in charge of WhatsApp for seven years and witnessed some of the company’s most significant achievements, including its expansion to over 3 billion global users. Cathcart will stay on at Meta and transition to a new position, this time in relation to developing future AI products.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has highlighted that Shah has the experience and skills to help WhatsApp grow and evolve, with his global perspective and track record of building CRED.

Shah’s induction is one of the biggest moves by an Indian entrepreneur to a leading global technology firm.

Why did Meta choose Kunal Shah?

Kunal Shah is a household name in India’s startup industry.

Prior to CRED, he was the founder of a digital payments company FreeCharge, which was one of India’s most successful startup success stories. Shah founded CRED after the exit of FreeCharge, an all-encompassing financial services platform that includes payments, lending, insurance, wealth management and lifestyle.

According to today’s claims by CRED, it has about 17 million active users every month and handles over 40 percent of India’s credit card bill payments. The company has also grown much bigger than the rewards based component of the business.

Meta seems to think that Shah has the requisite skills needed to take WhatsApp beyond a messaging service into something more substantial, but the one where users make financial transactions.

What it means for WhatsApp users?

Meta has already announced that Shah’s focus will be on growth opportunities in advertising, subscriptions and artificial intelligence products. He will also reportedly lead the work to make more AI agents and intelligent assistants available on WhatsApp.

This is significant as WhatsApp generates comparatively lower direct revenue than other significant platforms of Meta in the past.

The messaging app has over 3 billion users, and over the years, Meta has been looking for a way to monetize the platform without negatively affecting the user experience. Today, business messaging, AI tools, subscriptions and advertising are growing increasingly a part of that plan.

Shah’s expertise in fintech will also likely spark renewed discussion on payments and financial services being a larger component of WhatsApp’s future, especially in India, where digital payments are still booming.

So what is the future of CRED?

With Shah joining Meta, CRED is embarking on new territory.

Miten Sampat, who leads strategy and finance since 2020, has been appointed as the interim CEO of the company. The board will be focused on developing a longer-term leadership structure as CRED continues to prepare for potential listing on the public market in the future.

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However, the leadership change hasn’t hurt CRED’s profit, and it is confident the new capital will help it grow faster in several financial service segments.