Meta named entrepreneur Kunal Shah as the new head of WhatsApp, tapping the founder of fintech startup Cred to lead the messaging platform after investing $900M in his company during a recent financing round. Shah will step down as CEO of Cred, the 8-year-old credit-card bill payment and lending platform, while keeping his personal shares, with Meta noting its 20% stake won’t give it access to Cred’s member data. Mark Zuckerberg framed the hire as bringing a builder mentality to WhatsApp’s next phase of growth, with India already home to over 500M of the platform’s 3B users and serving as its largest market. Shah replaces Will Cathcart, who ran WhatsApp for seven years and oversaw its growth past 3B global users, and the move could reshape WhatsApp’s limited “Pay” offering, which launched in India in 2018.
