Will Cathcart, the longtime head of WhatsApp, announced on Monday that he is stepping down after leading the encrypted messaging service for seven years. He will be replaced by Kunal Shah, founder and CEO of CRED, an Indian fintech startup known for rewarding users who pay their credit card bills on time.
“WhatsApp is in its strongest position ever — and it felt like the right time to step back,” Cathcart wrote in a post on X on Monday. “We extended the reach of 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 have private conversations around the world.”
Cathcart will no longer make decisions on WhatsApp, but he isn’t leaving Meta entirely. Instead, he’s moving to 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 on Monday.
The leadership change comes as Meta is spending huge amounts of money on the infrastructure needed to train and run advanced AI models. The company raised its 2026 capital spending forecast to between $125 billion and $145 billion, up from its previous estimate of $115 billion to $135 billion.
At the same time, Meta is looking for new ways to make money beyond its core advertising business. This year, the company started introducing paid subscription plans on all its apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Meta product head Naomi Gleit said in an Instagram post at the time that more plans for Meta AI, online creators and businesses were to come.
For example, WhatsApp Plus costs $2.99 per month and gives users access to additional features like custom app themes and icons, special effects stickers, special ringtones, additional pinned chats, and the option to customize chat lists.
Shah will now take over as the CEO of WhatsApp during this new phase of the company. CRED, which he founded in 2018, is a fintech company in India that offers products across payments, loans, 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 at the helm of the world’s largest messaging app,” Zuckerberg wrote in his post.
The move also comes with a big investment. In a press release, CRED announced that it is raising approximately $900 million in a new Series H round led by Meta. The deal values CRED at more than $4 billion and gives Meta a minority stake in the company. CRED said Meta would not have access to customer information as part of the investment.
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