CRED founder Kunal Shah is stepping away from his operating role to join Meta and lead WhatsApp globally, he announced on June 22, 2026. Meta is investing $900 million into CRED for a roughly 20% stake, valuing the company at $4.5 billion post-money, according to Bloomberg.

Shah said Meta comes in as a minority investor in CRED with “No access to member data.” Meta already runs WhatsApp Pay in India and competes with CRED in parts of the payments market.

It’s been a minute.

2015–2018
– Exited FreeCharge. Spent time learning and investing.
– Pondered about: Why can't trust be rewarded? Started with $1M of personal capital.
– Launched CRED to reward people for paying credit card bills on time.

2019–2025
– Built a system run by a…

— Kunal Shah (@kunalb11) June 22, 2026

Meta’s payments bet: Shah pointed to the platform’s headroom, saying the “delta between WhatsApp today and its full potential is massive.” WhatsApp counts over 500 million users in India, but WhatsApp Pay has trailed PhonePe and Google Pay on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Meta wants WhatsApp to drive commerce, and Shah brings a payments and lending track record from CRED.

The handover: Shah replaces Will Cathcart, who has headed WhatsApp since 2019 and joined Meta, then Facebook, in 2010. Shah thanked Cathcart in his post for scaling the platform and easing the transition. At CRED, Miten Sampat, who has led strategy and finance since 2020, becomes interim CEO. Shah said he stays on as a shareholder.

Where CRED stands: Shah said CRED has grown to 17 million members and around $325 million (Rs 3,200 crore) in annual revenue, and posted its first profitable quarter in 2026. The company secured final RBI authorisation to operate as a payment aggregator in March 2026, adding to its Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) licence.

Also read:

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