Meta is investing about $900 million in Indian fintech company CRED and appointing its founder, Kunal Shah, to lead WhatsApp globally.

The financing values CRED at $4.5 billion after the investment and gives Meta a minority stake of roughly 20%.

The transaction will include both new capital for CRED and purchases of shares from existing investors. Meta will not receive a board seat or access to CRED customer information.

Shah will step away from his operating role at CRED and join Meta full time as the new head of WhatsApp.

He will replace Will Cathcart, who has led WhatsApp for roughly seven years and oversaw the messaging platform’s expansion to more than 3 billion monthly users.

Cathcart will remain at Meta and move into a new role focused on using artificial intelligence to develop consumer products and applications. Meta has not disclosed details about the project.

Shah will be responsible for expanding WhatsApp’s newer business lines, including advertising, subscriptions, payments and artificial intelligence agents.

The appointment comes as Meta looks to generate more revenue from one of the world’s largest messaging platforms, particularly in India, WhatsApp’s biggest market.

CRED was founded by Shah in 2018 and rewards members for paying credit card bills on time. Its platform has expanded into lending, insurance, wealth management and other financial services.

The company serves about 17 million members each month and processes more than 40% of India’s credit card bill payments.

CRED also manages more than $2.5 billion in lending assets for partner financial institutions and said it has reached profitability.

Miten Sampat, who has led strategy and finance at CRED since 2020, will become interim chief executive immediately.

The company said its board will review the longer term leadership structure as it works toward an eventual initial public offering.

The deal mirrors Meta’s previous strategy of investing in outside technology companies while recruiting their founders into senior leadership positions.

Meta invested more than $14 billion in Scale AI in 2025 and brought founder Alexandr Wang into the company to lead its artificial intelligence efforts.

Meta has also made several major investments in India, including its $5.7 billion investment in Jio Platforms in 2020.