BENGALURU: From building a fintech startup in Bengaluru to taking charge of the world’s largest messaging platform, entrepreneur Kunal Shah is set to take on his biggest leadership role yet.Meta Platforms has named the CRED founder as the new global head of WhatsApp, elevating one of India’s most recognised startup entrepreneurs to a top leadership position at the Facebook parent company.Shah will succeed Will Cathcart, who has led WhatsApp since 2019. Cathcart is helping guide Shah through the transition and will move into a new role at Meta, building new products from the ground up.The appointment marks a major shift for Shah, who built CRED from Bengaluru after years of entrepreneurship in India’s technology ecosystem.Born in 1979, Shah studied Philosophy at Mumbai’s Wilson College and briefly enrolled in a part-time MBA programme at NMIMS before dropping out to pursue entrepreneurship.The 47-year-old entrepreneur will now move from Bengaluru, where he created a business around rewarding users for paying their credit card bills on time, to Meta’s headquarters in California.Kunal, who started CRED in 2018, said he built the company with the belief that creditworthiness deserved to be rewarded. He said he was stepping back “with gratitude” and confidence in the team.Before CRED, Shah had founded FreeCharge in 2010, after launching PaisaBack in 2009.FreeCharge, one of India’s early digital payments ventures, was acquired by Snapdeal in 2015 for about Rs 2,800 crore.Shah later founded CRED with $1 million of his own money and went on to become one of India’s most prominent angel investors, with investments in over 200 startups, including Razorpay, Unacademy and BharatPe.
Meta-morphosis of a founder
- Born in 1979, studied Philosophy at Mumbai’s Wilson College and briefly enrolled in a part-time MBA at NMIMS before dropping out to pursue entrepreneurship
- Launched PaisaBack in 2009, co-founded digital payments platform FreeCharge in 2010
- In 2015, FreeCharge was acquired by Snapdeal for about Rs 2,800 crore
- Founded CRED in 2018 Prolific angel investor, said to have made investments in over 200 startups, including Razorpay, Unacademy and BharatPe.
- The move takes Shah from Bengaluru, where he built a business around rewarding users for paying their credit card bills on time, to Meta headquarters in California.
