Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) has committed $900 million through a Series H funding round in Indian fintech startup CRED on Monday. In a parallel move, CRED founder and CEO Kunal Shah is set to lead WhatsApp globally, strengthening Meta’s push into digital payments and financial services.
Notably, Meta’s investment does not include access to CRED’s user data; instead, the company gains Shah’s expertise as he joins WhatsApp, succeeding Will Cathcart.
With a valuation exceeding $4 billion in its latest funding round, CRED plans to use the funds to “accelerate growth, build institutional muscle, and extend its leadership across categories.” CRED, a platform that rewards users for timely credit card bill payments, now handles more than 40% of India’s credit card bill payment volume.
“Meta comes in as a minority investor in CRED. No access to member data. While it’s come very far, the delta between WhatsApp today and its full potential is massive,” wrote Shah on X.
Following Shah’s departure, Miten Sampat, previously responsible for strategy and finance at CRED, will serve as interim CEO. The board is also working on “constituting the right leadership structure towards eventual IPO,” according to the company.
Meta Deepens India Expansion
Meta’s investment in CRED and Shah’s move to WhatsApp come at a time when Meta is expanding its footprint in India. Earlier in June, Meta announced a partnership with Reliance to build a 168-megawatt facility in Jamnagar, Gujarat, to support Meta’s global infrastructure and AI computing requirements.
WhatsApp, a Meta subsidiary, boasts 500 million users in India but has struggled to popularize its payment tool, WhatsApp Pay, in the country’s competitive digital payments space. Meanwhile, in May, Meta launched consumer-facing subscriptions under “Plus” plans across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, indicating a strategic shift towards a subscription-based model.
Analyst Sees A Disguised Pattern
Author and independent analyst Shanaka Anslem Perera called the Meta’s latest move “an acqui-hire wearing a minority stake as a disguise.”
Perera highlighted that Meta used a similar playbook with Scale AI, investing over $14 billion and recruiting founder Alexandr Wang to lead a new AI lab. The strategy signals a broader shift: rather than acquiring entire companies and facing regulatory hurdles, Big Tech is increasingly taking minority stakes while hiring founders. In markets like India, where data-localization and foreign-ownership rules complicate takeovers, this approach allows companies like Meta to gain talent and strategic influence without acquiring control.
“Two deals, one pattern, and the pattern is the headline nobody is printing,” he wrote on X
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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