Kunal Shah, founder of fintech startup CRED, is set to lead WhatsApp globally, taking the reins from Will Cathcart, who is stepping down after nearly seven years at the messaging app. Under the deal, Meta is investing $900 million in CRED for about a 20% stake, valuing the homegrown fintech company at roughly $4.5 billion after the investment.
Shah’s appointment as WhatsApp head has triggered mixed reactions online, with tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg praising his builder mindset and AI savvy, while some see it as Meta’s attempt to scale WhatsApp beyond messaging, particularly into payments and AI commerce.
WhatsApp’s potential pivot to payments:
“WhatsApp has already maxed out its business product in India (no other country’s consumer or regulatory bodies would permit or tolerate the level of spam India deals with on WhatsApp) as well as its ads product (there are ads even between stories now, ffs, in a private messaging app). The only lever that is yet to be maxed out is its payments product, which launched in India a few years back. Considering the growth of India’s digital microtransaction economy and corresponding consumer habits, it’s tempting to consider that WhatsApp has the chance to outdo every payment product in the region.” — @sugandhanisa [Link]
“The $900M investment is not only for Kunal, it’s for the intellectual property he brings about India’s fintech (a headache for global executives everywhere) and Indian consumer habits, from the homegrown CRED. It’s actually a small price considering UPI hit ~230B transactions last year, 33% increase y-o-y. I surmise WhatsApp is planning to become a full-blown payments product. Messaging + microtransactions has anyway been the trend in Indian consumer products.” — @sugandhanisa [Link]
“Zuck wants WhatsApp Pay to become default payment app in India, and WhatsApp already has distribution. It needs user behaviour to change, and they’re not looking for revenue streams in the medium term. Perfect scenario for Kunal Shah.” — @mxtaverse [Link]
One user on X also drew parallels with Chinese super app WeChat, which has over 1 billion users. While WeChat Pay has gained traction in China, WhatsApp Pay has failed to replicate that scale in India and is well behind local rivals such as PhonePe and Google Pay in terms of UPI market share.
According to data from the National Payments Corporation of India, PhonePe’s UPI market share stood at 46.2% in May, compared to Google Pay’s 32.7%. By comparison, CRED held a 0.7% share, and WhatsApp owned 0.6%. This gap indicates significant headroom for WhatsApp’s growth in India, one of the world’s largest payments markets.
Commenting on his appointment, Shah himself said that the “delta between WhatsApp today and its full potential is massive.” [Link]
“Kunal Shah is hired as WhatsApp CEO. And honestly, that tells me where WhatsApp wants to grow next, not in messaging but in Payments. For years, Kunal Shah has built products around money, consumer behavior, trust, and financial habits. First, FreeCharge. Then CRED. Now WhatsApp. Let’s see how what’s app grow and become more than just a messaging app.” — @divyaporwal_ [Link]
Shah leaving CRED with IPO around the corner: “Before Kunal Shah started CRED, Meta (then Facebook) had tried to hire him as WhatsApp India CEO. They already knew him. I guess this time the opportunity was big enough, the role was big enough.” — Nikhil Pahwa, founder, MediaNama [Link]
“Most importantly, Kunal leaves CRED in extremely able, capable and trusted hands, with Miten at the helm. I know he’s interim CEO, but I’d love to see Miten take CRED to an IPO. He’ll be amazing as a listed company CEO, and I think he’s been ready for it for a while.” — @nixxin [Link]
“We were first investors with Kunal in both Freecharge and CRED. I am excited about the next phase of Cred, which will be about consistent and profitable compounding and an accelerated journey to IPO. Looking forward to working with Miten and the team on this next phase.” — Shailendra Singh, Managing Director, Peak XV Partners [Link]
“If Kunal Shah left CRED for WhatsApp without Meta putting in a significant sum in CRED, it would have looked like jumping a sinking ship. Shah must have pushed for the investment as part of the deal, especially with IPO plans looming (not immediate but in a few years).” — @vivekraju93 [Link]
“CRED just had its first profitable quarter. A common trend seen among loss-making tech startups is their founders looking to maxx around the time profitability kicks in. Amazon, Airbnb, Zomato, Meta, Zerodha, Groww, Lokal. Very strong correlation.” — @vivekraju93 [Link]
Concerns around CRED sharing users’ financial data with Meta: “CRED will be selling the UPI or other bank related data to Meta then? Of course.” — @phsenag [Link]
Though CRED claims Meta won’t have access to members’ data, one user pointed out that the Facebook owner has been at the fulcrum of several privacy issues in the past.
“CRED sits on credit scores of 17M+ premium Indians, spending patterns, EMI data and bill payment behaviour. Meta officially says it “won’t access CRED member data.” The same Meta whose privacy policy the Supreme Court of India called “crafted to mislead. Sure. We believe you.” — @thesinceredude [Link]
“Remember when they used the PM for PR, got acquired, and then Freecharge completely faded into oblivion? Now he’s taking over WhatsApp. Get ready for a UI full of useless gamified coins and credit card bills, right before the app quietly loses its user base. History repeats itself, just with bigger vanity metrics.” –@thesinceredude [Link]
Shah joins an elite list of Indian tech CEOs: In a statement on Monday, Zuckerberg said Shah “built CRED into one of India’s most important technology companies,” and his builder mentality made him a good fit to lead WhatsApp.
“Adding to the list of Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai, now a friend among us. And that too a (nearly) billion $ (quasi acqui) hire. Cheers to @kunalb11.” — Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma. [Link]
“This is the first time I’ve seen a non-silicon valley founder catapulted to lead such a critical product. Think what you may of Cred, it was a big bet that’s come off quite well. And this appointment is just testament to Kunal’s tenacity as a founder and leader.” — Deedy Das, Partner at Menlo Ventures [Link]
Other Indian-origin CEOs in tech
Note: CRED is not the only Indian startup in which Meta has a stake. Before this deal, Meta (formerly Facebook) had backed Meesho and Unacademy in 2019 and 2020, respectively. It had also invested $5.7 bn in Jio Platforms in 2020.
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