Meta replaces WhatsApp head Will Cathcart with CRED founder Kunal Shah

Meta Platforms has replaced WhatsApp head Will Cathcart with Kunal Shah, founder of Indian fintech company CRED, according to an announcement by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Cathcart left the top WhatsApp role after nearly seven years leading the messaging platform.

Meta said Cathcart is not leaving the company and will take on a new internal role focused on building new products from scratch. Zuckerberg said Cathcart helped bring encrypted communications to more than 3 billion WhatsApp users worldwide during his time leading the service.

Bloomberg reported separately that Meta will invest $900 million in CRED for a stake of about 20%. Zuckerberg said Shah had built CRED into a major technology company in India and said he expected to work with him on WhatsApp, which serves billions of users and millions of businesses.

Before leading WhatsApp, Cathcart joined Meta, then Facebook, in 2010 and held product leadership roles including News Feed development and advertising across News Feed and mobile. In 2018, he became vice president of the Facebook app, overseeing strategy and development for video, groups, Marketplace, News Feed and Stories.