Kunal Shah: The Indian entrepreneur taking charge of WhatsApp

Until recently, Kunal Shah was a familiar name mainly within India's startup and investor circles. The founder of fintech company Cred had steadily built a following beyond the businesses he created. His podcast appearances often ventured into topics such as trust, incentives, wealth creation and human behaviour. His social media posts ranged from artificial intelligence to philosophy. Now, with Meta appointing him to lead WhatsApp, he has been propelled into the global spotlight. The appointment follows Meta's $900m (£679m) investment in Cred and comes at a time when WhatsApp is seeking to expand beyond messaging into payments, business services and AI-powered products. While Indian-origin executives have led some of the world's biggest technology companies, it is less common for a founder who built his career within India's startup ecosystem to be handed control of a global consumer platform of that scale. WhatsApp has more than three billion users worldwide. Long before Meta came calling, Shah had become a recognisable figure in India's startup ecosystem. His first major breakthrough came with FreeCharge, a mobile recharge platform he co-founded in 2010 as India's internet economy was beginning to take shape. The company grew rapidly and was acquired , external by e-commerce firm Snapdeal in 2015 in what was then one of the largest startup acquisitions in the country. But Shah's reputation would eventually expand beyond the companies he built. …