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It's an amazing story how a single cold email from Meta's Chief Product Officer Chris Cox to Kunal Shah triggered the whole chain of events that resulted in Shah's promotion to the new global chief of WhatsApp. Cox had been trying to engage with innovators in other high-growth markets such as India for their feedback on how WhatsApp should move forward, particularly in payments, commerce, and with AI. Cox was so impressed by Shah's incisive views that at the end of their talk he asked him if he would like to lead the platform himself.

Under the agreement, Meta has pledged to dump almost $900 million in CRED, Shah's fintech firm. Shah replaced Will Cathcart, a former CEO of WhatsApp and who has been running the business for more than seven years, as the CEO of CRED. Mark Zuckerberg and Cox spoke highly of Shah's “builder mentality” and his “insight into consumer behavior in emerging markets."

The move reflects Meta's strategy of diversifying WhatsApp's revenue in India and the rest of the world and leaves the Indian entrepreneur as one of the world's most important messaging platforms with 3+ billion users under his command.