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Cris Tolomia
Mon, June 22, 2026 astatine 9:02 AM CDT 2 min read
Meta is investing $900 cardinal successful Indian fintech startup Cred and appointing its founder, Kunal Shah, to pb WhatsApp, replacing Will Cathcart.
At a post-money valuation of $4.5 billion, the woody would springiness Meta astir a one-fifth ownership presumption successful Cred. The superior operation includes some superior and secondary components, with a information of the funds going toward buying retired shares held by existent Cred investors. Meta volition not instrumentality a committee spot and volition not person entree to Cred lawsuit data.
The 47-year-old volition permission his location basal of Bangalore to instrumentality up the relation successful idiosyncratic astatine Meta's field successful Menlo Park, California, joining the institution arsenic a full-time employee. Chris Cox, Meta's main merchandise officer, drove the hunt and had acceptable retired to find a laminitis with roots successful a marketplace wherever WhatsApp commands a ample and established idiosyncratic base. Cox described Shah arsenic "one of India's astir respected entrepreneurs, a superior thinker, and a profoundly bully person," according to Bloomberg.
"Kunal built Cred into 1 of India's astir important exertion companies, and helium brings the benignant of builder mentality and planetary position that volition service him good successful moving the world's biggest messaging app," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote successful a statement.
Among Shah's priorities astatine WhatsApp volition beryllium monetization efforts specified arsenic advertizing and subscription offerings, on with the broader rollout of AI agents crossed the platform. WhatsApp surpassed 3 cardinal monthly users successful 2025.
Rather than departing the company, Cathcart — who spent astir 7 years overseeing WhatsApp — volition displacement into a antithetic presumption astatine Meta centered connected applying AI tools to user app and merchandise development.
Cred, which launched successful 2018, built its concern astir an app that offers perks to users who enactment existent connected recognition paper payments and gives them tools to show their spending habits. The app has 17 cardinal monthly users. Its astir caller extracurricular financing was a Series G circular of $75 million, with Singapore's authorities concern conveyance GIC serving arsenic pb backer. Though stepping backmost from day-to-day operations, Shah volition support his equity involvement successful Cred. Strategy enforcement Miten Sampat has been named interim CEO arsenic the committee works done a succession program with a nationalist offering connected the horizon.
The determination echoes a playbook Meta has utilized before: it tied a $14 billion-plus concern successful Scale AI to the recruitment of that company's founder, Alexandr Wang, who present leads a recently established AI laboratory wrong Meta. A $5.7 cardinal woody for a 10% stock of Jio Platforms was among Meta's earlier India bets, aimed astatine accelerating commercialized enactment done WhatsApp.
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