Among the Indian-origin tech giants whose names are popular in America’s famed Silicon Valley, a new one is about to get added. That of CRED founder and Global Head of WhatsApp, Kunal Shah. At a time when Indians have been facing discrimination and bias globally, Shah’s appointment comes as a testament that merit matters more than makeup. But what did it take to reach the peak?
Kunal Shah: The early beginnings
Kunal Shah was born and raised in Mumbai, India in a middle-class family. Grounded and empathetic from the beginning due to his family’s humble financial condition, he began to hustle around the age of 14-15. He worked several odd jobs to support his family after it went bankrupt following the collapse of his father’s business.By the age of 16, Shah had achieved financial freedom by doing a set of odd jobs including delivery boy, data operator, mehendi cone seller, cyber café operator, pirated CD seller and computer skills tutor.He initially pursued a degree in Philosophy at Wilson College, Mumbai, not due to some great interest in philosophy but because his family had gone bankrupt, he was doing multiple jobs and philosophy was the only subject where the classes were from 8 am to 10 am. He later enrolled in the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) for management studies but dropped out before completing the programme. “I realised that I was better off learning on my own than through a structured programme, because the curricula and theories were a lot more designed for scoring marks and not really understanding things. So to me MBA as a format did not work,” he explained.
Kunal Shah: The rise of a professional
When asked if these experiences made him more empathetic as a person and a leader, he said he had “never really thought about it.” “I do believe that to create something big through the effort of many people coming together, empathy is not a choice. It’s almost like a compulsory thing to have, right? You cannot expect to change consumer behaviour or have a team that will be inspired to change things if you are not empathetic to what they personally feel. And I think anybody who’s trying to build anything does not have a choice to really be not empathetic for a long period of time,” he said at the time in 2021.His professional journey began with founding FreeCharge, a digital payment platform launched in 2010. It quickly became one of India’s leading mobile recharge and payments businesses before being acquired by Snapdeal in 2015 in a deal reportedly worth around $450 million.Next, he spent years investing in startups and exploring other businesses before founding CRED with $1 million of his own capital, rewarding users for paying their credit card bills on time. Under him, the platform scaled from zero to 17 million members between 2019 and 2025. CRED went on to raise over $900 million from global investors, execute multiple employee stock ownership plan buybacks, and report its first profitable quarter in 2026.Meta’s 20% acquisition in Cred now values the company at $4.5 billion. Shah will be succeeding current WhatsApp global head Will Cathcart, who is transitioning into a new role within Meta to focus on AI- powered consumer products. At Cred, Miten Sampat who oversaw strategy and finance will take on the role of interim CEO.At a time when Indians have been actively facing wrath for their rising roles in the tech sector in America, Shah’s move comes as a welcome event. It is an assurance for thousands dreaming of making it big in Silicon Valley, that at the end of the day, what matters is your own CRED rather than the chats of others.