Meta reveals cold email that led to Kunal Shah's WhatsApp CEO appointment

Meta has revealed that Kunal Shah's appointment as WhatsApp CEO began with a cold email from Meta executive Chris Cox. What started as a request for advice soon turned into a leadership offer.

In Short

• Meta says Kunal Shah's WhatsApp journey started with a cold email from Chris Cox
• Shah impressed Meta leadership during a three-month recruitment process
• Meta also invested $900 million in CRED as part of the broader partnership

A simple email turned into one of the biggest leadership appointments in the technology industry. Meta has revealed that its decision to appoint CRED founder Kunal Shah as the new CEO of WhatsApp began with an unexpected cold email from the company’s Chief Product Officer, Chris Cox. What started as a conversation to seek advice for a future leader at the company eventually convinced Meta that Shah himself was the right person to lead one of the world's most widely used messaging platforms. The announcement has drawn attention not just because WhatsApp serves more than 3 billion users globally, but also because Shah becomes one of the few Indian entrepreneurs to take charge of a major Meta product. His appointment comes at a time when WhatsApp is looking beyond messaging and exploring new revenue opportunities through AI, subscriptions, payments and business services.

According to a Bloomberg report, Chris Cox had been speaking with entrepreneurs and investors across major WhatsApp markets such as India, Brazil and Mexico. The goal was to gather ideas about the future of the platform and identify what qualities the next WhatsApp leader should possess.

One of those calls was with Kunal Shah. Cox said Shah's responses immediately stood out.

“He had an incredible set of answers,” Cox recalled. “At the end of the call, I asked him if maybe he and I should talk about him doing it.”

What followed was a three-month recruitment process that included multiple visits to Meta's California headquarters and meetings with top company executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg. During this period, Meta leadership got convinced that Shah's understanding of consumers and digital businesses could help unlock WhatsApp's next phase of growth.

Shah himself acknowledged the scale of the opportunity after his appointment.

“While it’s come very far, the delta between WhatsApp today and its full potential is massive,” he wrote on X.

Why Meta chose Kunal Shah

Meta's interest in Shah goes beyond his startup success. Over the years, he has built a reputation as one of India's most influential entrepreneurs and angel investors. He has backed more than 250 startups, including Razorpay and Gojek, while also founding successful ventures of his own.

His entrepreneurial journey began with FreeCharge, a mobile recharge and payments startup that was later sold to Snapdeal in a deal reportedly worth around $450 million. In 2018, he launched CRED, which rewards users for paying credit card bills on time. The company has since expanded into lending, insurance, payments and wealth management.

As part of Shah's move to WhatsApp, Meta invested $900 million in CRED, acquiring roughly a 20 percent stake in the company. The investment values CRED at around $4.5 billion.

Meta executives believe Shah's experience in India played a major role in his selection. India is WhatsApp's largest market and one of the company's most important regions for future growth, especially in payments and commerce.

Cox said understanding how people use WhatsApp in countries like India requires a deep level of intuition that cannot always be gained through research alone.

Mark Zuckerberg also praised Shah's "builder mentality", a quality Meta sees as important as WhatsApp tries to expand beyond messaging.

Shah will now take over from Will Cathcart, who led WhatsApp since 2019 and helped grow the platform from 1.5 billion users to more than 3 billion. Cathcart will remain at Meta and focus on building new AI-powered consumer products.

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