WhatsApp Global CEO Kunal Shah Exits Cred Promoter Role

Kunal Shah stepped down as a promoter and board member of Cred, the company he founded eight years ago, after Meta Platforms, Inc named him WhatsApp’s new global chief executive.

On 22 June, he converted his 11.14% promoter holding in his personal capacity into public shares. Documents filed by Cred's holding company, Dreamplug Technologies Private Ltd, with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs stated this transition.

Shah still owns about 20% of the startup, both directly and through his family investment office, QED Innovation Labs LLP. In the announcement of his WhatsApp appointment, Shah said Meta Platforms would neither get a board seat at Cred nor access Cred’s customer database. It was not clear whether he stepped down because of a Meta stipulation tied to his new role overseeing WhatsApp's global monetisation plans, or whether the decision was voluntary.

Meta Investment and Valuation

Meta invested ₹8,550 crore ($890 million) for about a 20% stake in Cred on 22 June, valuing the Indian startup at nearly $4.5 billion and ending its long-running effort to raise capital. In June 2022, a funding round led by Singapore’s sovereign fund valued Cred at $6.4 billion. By May last year, that valuation had fallen to $3.5 billion. Mint’s review of internal fair-market valuation paperwork showed Cred at $1.2 billion in December.

Launched in April 2018, Cred gives users points for paying credit card bills, and those points can be exchanged for rewards. Its business also includes loans, additional credit cards and targeted advertising to its user base. Cred states it has 17 million monthly active users and handles almost 40% of all credit card payments in the country.

The company has not yet reported a full profitable fiscal year. Tofler data showed revenue of ₹2,535.7 crore and a net loss of ₹1,692.1 crore in FY25. Shah, shortly before stepping away, said Cred had posted its first profitable quarter in the January-to-March period this year.

With the latest shift in ownership, Cred joins Delhivery, Paytm, PolicyBazaar, Swiggy and Eternal among startups without promoter shareholders. The Securities and Exchange Board of India once required companies to retain promoter shareholding, but later relaxed the rule and exempted startups. That change allows firms to be run by professionally appointed executives rather than by a sole founder or founder group.

Most new-age startups are backed by private equity, and the absence of promoter shareholders is usually seen as a step toward a public listing.