Meta Spends $900 Million to Buy New Head of WhatsApp

Meta has appointed CRED founder Kunal Shah as the new global head of WhatsApp following a strategic $900 million investment in the Indian fintech firm, Bloomberg is reporting.

Some personal news. After nearly 7 years leading WhatsApp, I’m excited to share who will take over the responsibility of delivering simple, reliable, and private messaging for the world. WhatsApp is in the strongest position it’s ever been — and that felt like the right moment to…

— Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) June 22, 2026

The transaction gives Meta an approximate 20% minority stake in the Bengaluru-based fintech firm, valuing CRED at roughly 4.5 billion dollars. For Shah, this transition means relocating to California to oversee the world’s most popular messaging app, a platform that surpassed 3 billion monthly active users last year.

Shah will take the reins from Will Cathcart, who has led WhatsApp for nearly seven years. Cathcart is not leaving Meta, but is instead moving into a new internal role focused strictly on developing artificial intelligence products.

Choosing an executive with a pure finance and startup background to lead a communications tool might seem unusual at first glance, but it perfectly highlights Meta’s future roadmap. WhatsApp is no longer just an app for sending free text messages. Under Cathcart, the platform quietly grew its business messaging tools, payment options, and subscription features. Meta is now banking on Shah’s specific expertise to turn WhatsApp into a massive revenue engine.

Shah has spent years tracking consumer consumer behaviour and building systems that handle digital payments at a massive scale. Reflecting on his personal journey on social media, Shah noted that he launched CRED with 1 million dollars of his own capital to answer a simple question: “Why can’t trust be rewarded?”

Between 2019 and 2025, CRED grew from an empty canvas into a financial ecosystem with 17 million members, processing more than 40% of all credit card bill payments in India. Shah also revealed that the company recently hit its first profitable quarter and scaled its annual revenue to roughly 325 million dollars.

Regarding his new global role at Meta, Shah shared his perspective on the app’s trajectory. “While it’s come very far, the delta between WhatsApp today and its full potential is massive,” Shah wrote. He also publicly thanked his predecessor, stating, “Will, thank you for scaling something the world relies on quietly, and for making this transition smooth.”