Kunal Shah’s elevation to WhatsApp CEO began when Meta’s CPO Chris Cox consulted him while scouting perspectives on the app’s future in key markets such as India, Brazil and Mexico
Shah’s answers stood out, prompting Cox to consider him for the role
Over months of meetings at Meta’s California headquarters, Shah convinced leadership he could steer WhatsApp’s next phase of growth
How Kunal Shah Was Appointed As WhatsApp CEO, Meta's CPO Chris Cox Reveals
What started as a discussion about WhatsApp's future eventually evolved into a three-month recruitment process that included several visits by Kunal Shah to Meta's headquarters in California and meeting Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Kunal Shah (left) and Meta's Chief Product Officer Chris Cox (right)
Summary
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Meta's decision to appoint CRED founder Kunal Shah as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of WhatsApp began with an unexpected outreach from the company's Chief Product Officer Chris Cox.
Cox revealed that he had been consulting entrepreneurs and investors across key WhatsApp markets, including India, Brazil and Mexico, to gather perspectives on the platform's future and identify qualities needed in its next leader. One of those conversations was with Shah, whose insights reportedly stood out immediately.
"He had an incredible set of answers," Cox said in an interview with Bloomberg (BBG). "At the end of the call, I asked him if maybe he and I should talk about him doing it," he added.
What started as a discussion about WhatsApp's future eventually evolved into a three-month recruitment process that included several visits by Shah to Meta's headquarters in California and meetings with senior executives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, BBG reported.
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Why Meta Chose Kunal Shah
Meta's leadership was particularly drawn to Shah's deep understanding of consumer behaviour in emerging markets, especially India, WhatsApp's largest user base globally.
Understanding how people use WhatsApp in markets such as India requires a level of intuition that cannot easily be acquired through research alone.
“It’s almost like speaking a language,” Cox said of understanding the app's usage in countries like India, as per the BBG report.
Zuckerberg also praised Shah's "builder mentality", a quality Meta reportedly considers crucial as WhatsApp expands into areas such as payments, artificial intelligence (AI), subscriptions and business services.
From FreeCharge To WhatsApp
Shah is one of India's best-known entrepreneurs and angel investors. He has reportedly invested in more than 250 startups, including Razorpay and Gojek, while building businesses of his own.
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His entrepreneurial journey began with FreeCharge, a digital payments and mobile recharge platform that was sold to Snapdeal in a deal valued at about $450 million. He later founded CRED in 2018, which has expanded from credit-card rewards into lending, insurance, payments and wealth management.
As part of Shah's transition to WhatsApp, Meta invested $900 million in CRED for an approximately 20% stake, valuing the company at around $4.5 billion.
Shah succeeds Will Cathcart, who led WhatsApp since 2019 and oversaw the platform's growth from 1.5 billion to more than 3 billion users worldwide. Cathcart will remain at Meta, where he will focus on developing new AI-driven consumer products.