Cred founder Kunal Shah has been appointed Global CEO of WhatsApp in a major leadership shake-up at Meta. Along with the appointment, Meta announced a $900 million investment in Cred, valuing the fintech unicorn at $4.5 billion. Meta’s Chief Product Officer Chris Cox personally recruited Shah, praising his deep product insights and vision for making WhatsApp far more useful in daily life. Shah will operate from Bengaluru, not Silicon Valley. This marks a strategic shift as Meta looks to accelerate WhatsApp’s monetisation through advertising, commerce, and payments, especially in its largest market — India.