CRED's Kunal Shah tapped to lead WhatsApp as Cathcart exits; Meta to back CRED with ~$900M

Will Cathcart steps down as WhatsApp chief, with CRED founder Kunal Shah lined up to take over. Meta is separately committing roughly $900M to CRED, deepening its India play around business messaging and payments in WhatsApp's largest market (3B global users, CRED at 17M MAU).

— Filed Mon, 22 Jun, 2026, 22:38 IST · Source Mint · Companies · Updated

CRED founder Kunal Shah to head WhatsApp as Will Cathcart steps down; Meta separately backing CRED with ~$900M. India is WhatsApp's largest market, central to its business messaging and payments strategy.

Why this matters

The move ties CRED's leadership directly into Meta's India stack, pairing a $900M check with operational control of WhatsApp as Meta pushes deeper into business messaging and payments.

Leadership signals steady at 330 over the last 90 days.