Meta to invest $900 mn in CRED, names Kunal Shah WhatsApp’s global CEO

Meta Platforms Inc., the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is investing $900 million (about Rs 8,500 crore) in CRED in primary and secondary capital, the Indian fintech startup’s founder Kunal Shah said Monday.

The US company is investing in CRED at a post-money valuation of $4.5 billion. This effectively gives Meta a 20% stake in the Indian company. 

Meanwhile, Meta has also named Shah as WhatsApp’s new global leader, the messaging app’s current head Will Cathcart tweeted on X. Cathcart also said he will step down as WhatsApp’s CEO after a seven-year stint.

Shah is one of India’s best-known fintech entrepreneurs. Before founding Cred in 2018, he co-founded digital payments startup FreeCharge in 2010 and sold it to Snapdeal for about $400 million in 2015 in one of the largest startup acquisitions in India at the time. 

Shah is also an active angel investor. He has backed dozens of startups across fintech, software and consumer technology including local unicorn startups Razorpay, Unacademy and Spinny. 

Cred was set up in 2018. The company began as a platform that rewarded users for paying their credit card bills on time. Over the years, it has expanded into a broader financial services platform spanning lending, UPI payments, utility bill payments, insurance, commerce and wealth management.

The company has raised close to $1 billion from investors including Peak XV Partners, GIC, Tiger Global, Sofina, RTP Global and Alpha Wave Global. In 2022, it raised $140 million in a Series F round led by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and existing investors at a $6.4 billion valuation. Previously, it closed a $251 million round in 2021 at a valuation of $4 billion, when Tiger Global and Falcon Edge joined its cap table.

Last year, Cred secured Rs 455 crore ($53.2 million) in fresh funding from its existing investors, including GIC, early-stage venture capital firm RTP Global and Belgium-based investor Sofina. The Series G round valued it at around $3.5-3.6 billion. 

In the financial year through March 2025, Cred reported operating revenue of Rs 2,735 crore, up 16% from the previous year, while operating losses narrowed 51% to Rs 298 crore. Its net loss narrowed 11.5% to Rs 1,457 crore. The company processed transactions worth Rs 8.5 trillion during the year and ended FY25 with lending assets under management of Rs 22,000 crore.

While it is yet to file its financials for FY26, Shah said that the company recently recorded its first profitable quarter. He also signalled that the company’s revenue surged to around Rs 3,200 crore in FY26. 

Meanwhile, the company has also been expanding through acquisitions, most notably the purchase of wealthtech platform Kuvera in early 2024. It recently secured a payment aggregator licence from the Reserve Bank of India, allowing it to directly onboard merchants and process digital payments.