Meta is shaking up the leadership over at its popular messaging platform WhatsApp.
Will Cathcart, the longtime head of WhatsApp, announced Monday that he is stepping down after leading the encrypted messaging service for seven years. He will be replaced by Kunal Shah, the founder and CEO of CRED, an Indian fintech startup best known for rewarding users who pay their credit card bills on time.
“WhatsApp is in the strongest position it’s ever been — and that felt like the right moment to step back,” wrote Cathcart in a post on X on Monday. “We scaled end-to-end encrypted messaging to more than three billion people. We brought it to group chats, companion devices, new surfaces — and defended people’s right to a private conversation across the globe.”
Cathcart will no longer call the shots at WhatsApp, but he is not leaving Meta altogether. Instead, he is moving into a new role at the company where he will “build new products from the ground up,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post Monday.
The leadership change comes as Meta is spending enormous amounts of money on the infrastructure needed to train and run advanced AI models. The company raised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to between $125 billion and $145 billion, up from its previous projection of $115 billion to $135 billion.
At the same time, Meta has been looking for new ways to make money beyond its core advertising business. This year, the company started rolling out paid subscription plans across its apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Meta Head of Product Naomi Gleit said in an Instagram post at the time that more plans were on the way for Meta AI, online creators, and businesses.
WhatsApp Plus, for example, costs $2.99 a month and gives users access to extra features such as custom app themes and icons, special effect stickers, exclusive ringtones, additional pinned chats, and options to customize chat lists.
Shah will now take over WhatsApp as CEO during this new phase for the company. CRED, which he founded in 2018, is a fintech company in India that offers products around payments, lending, insurance, wealth management, and lifestyle services. The company says it has 17 million monthly members and processes more than 40% of India’s credit card bill payments.
“Kunal built CRED into one of India’s most important technology companies, and he brings the kind of builder mentality and global perspective that will serve him well in running the world’s biggest messaging app,” wrote Zuckerberg in his post.
The move also comes with a major investment. In a press release, CRED announced that it is raising around $900 million in a new Series H round led by Meta. The deal values CRED at over $4 billion and gives Meta a minority stake in the company. CRED said Meta will not have access to customer information as part of the investment.
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