4 min readNew DelhiJun 22, 2026 11:11 PM IST
First published on: Jun 22, 2026 at 07:23 PM IST
In a surprise leadership move, Meta announced that Kunal Shah, founder of fintech firm CRED, will take over as the new head of WhatsApp, succeeding Will Cathcart, who led the messaging platform for nearly seven years. Shah said that though WhatsApp had come “very far,” the “delta” between what the service offers today and its “full potential is massive”.
The appointment comes alongside Meta’s decision to invest about $900 million (around Rs 8,550 crore) in CRED, one of the largest investments by a global technology company in an Indian fintech startup.
The move marks one of the most significant leadership appointments involving an Indian entrepreneur at a major global consumer technology platform. WhatsApp, which serves over three billion users worldwide, and more than 500 million in India, has increasingly become central to Meta’s strategy around business messaging, payments, advertising and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered services.
WhatsApp is among the most commonly used online services in the country, and serves a broad range of purposes, from personal messaging to business communication. The platform allows for secured and encrypted messages between users, and is among the more secure ways of messaging people.
As part of the deal, Shah will step away from his executive responsibilities at Cred and join Meta’s global leadership team, while continuing to hold his personal stake in the fintech company. Cred has appointed Miten Sampat, who has overseen the company’s strategy and finance functions since 2020, as interim chief executive with immediate effect. Shah said that Meta will not have access to the data of Cred’s users.
Cathcart to step down as WhatsApp chief; WhatsApp pivots to AI and commerce
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s founder and CEO, said in a post on Facebook, “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”.
Will Cathcart, who has led WhatsApp since 2019, said he would step down after seven years at the helm and move into a new role within Meta focused on building next-generation products. During his tenure, WhatsApp rolled out encrypted cloud backups, expanded to more devices, introduced advertising formats and deepened its integration with Meta’s AI initiatives.
Shah is among the country’s best-known entrepreneurs, having first built digital payments platform FreeCharge before founding CRED in 2018. Over the years, he has also become one of India’s most prolific angel investors, backing hundreds of startups across sectors, even though questions over CRED’s unit economics have continued.
For Meta, the move comes at a time when WhatsApp is evolving beyond messaging into a platform for commerce, payments, AI assistants and business services. Shah’s mandate could include accelerating monetisation through advertising and subscription offerings while expanding AI-powered experiences across the app.
His experience building a fintech company used by some of India’s wealthiest individuals could also come in handy in scaling WhatsApp Pay — a service which has a marginal share in India’s digital payments ecosystem via the unified payments interface (UPI), despite the messaging app being used by more than 500 million users in the country.
Kunal Shah will join Meta's global leadership team while retaining his personal shareholding in Bengaluru-based CRED. (Credits: Instagram/Kunal Shah, enhanced with AI) 
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