Inside Meta's India investments: First Reliance, now Cred

Meta on Monday invested Rs 8,550 crore ($900 million) in Cred and hired its founder Kunal Shah as the global head of WhatsApp, one of Meta's most important businesses.

This was among the tech giant's biggest investments in the Indian startup ecosystem, which also shot Shah into the elite club of global tech leaders.

Zooming out, here’s a look at Meta’s other investments in India, one of its biggest and most lucrative markets.


Jio investment

One of Meta's first major investments in India was when Reliance Industries' Jio Platforms raised over $20.5 billion in 2020. Meta acquired 9.99% stake, alongside Alphabet, KKR, Silver Lake, and others. The company will retain its share in the platform, which is now planning a Rs 35,000-crore public issue.

With this bet, the tech giant wanted to move the needle on WhatsApp Pay, which hadn't seen much traction in India. Meta integrated Reliance's grocery-delivery platform JioMart with WhatsApp to build a commerce ecosystem. By 2022, WhatsApp users could browse JioMart's catalogue, buy groceries, and pay without leaving the chat.

However, that did not improve WhatsApp Pay's market share as it was unable to crash the duopoly of Walmart-backed PhonePe and Google Pay.

Meta has since launched multiple joint initiatives, including its latest AI venture, Reliance Enterprise Intelligence Limited (REIL), where both firms have committed Rs 855 crore.

Data centre

Weeks before the Cred deal, Meta tied up with Reliance Industries for its first large‑scale, AI‑ready data centre campus in India. The Facebook parent will lease 168 megawatts of capacity at Reliance’s campus in Jamnagar, Gujarat, with an option to scale further.

The facility will be powered by renewable energy and cooled with desalinated seawater, with Reliance handling everything from data centre design and construction to power and connectivity, while Meta will cover the full energy and water costs. It's expected to be operational by 2028.

Meesho and Unacademy

Facebook invested about $20-25 million in Meesho in 2019 in a bid to enable entrepreneurship among women in smaller towns, per an ET report. However, the companies did not disclose the deal amount.

A year later, Unacademy raised $110 million from Facebook, General Atlantic, Sequoia India, Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital, and Blume Ventures.

Cred

Meta has picked up a minority stake in Cred (less than 20%), looking to embed payments and commerce in its messaging platform.

Besides fresh capital, the round gives Cred a strategic backer as it prepares for its next phase of growth, while giving Meta an entry into the cap table of one of India's most prominent consumer fintech startups.