Why Meta’s Cred investment matters for WhatsApp Pay in India

Meta’s $900 million investment in Bengaluru-based Cred, along with the appointment of its founder Kunal Shah, as the global head of WhatsApp, marks one of the most significant intersections of Big Tech and Indian fintech in recent years.

The transaction values Cred at around $4.5 billion, higher than the $3.5 billion post its previous funding in 2025 but below its peak valuation of $6.4 billion in 2022. However, more than the valuation, the round gives firepower to Cred to grow its business and gun for net profits and a potential public listing.

For Meta, with Shah at the helm, there is a chance that WhatsApp's position in India, its largest market, will go beyond messaging into payments, commerce, and business services.


What this means for Meta

The deal could help Meta address one of its biggest challenges in India: monetising its ubiquitous messaging platform. Despite having more than 500 million users in India, WhatsApp Pay accounts for only around 0.65% of UPI transactions, per data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Cred's share stands at roughly 0.68%.

In comparison, PhonePe and Google Pay together comprised about 79% of UPI transactions in May 2026. Newer entrants like Navi and Super.Money has built bigger payment businesses than WhatsApp Pay in less time.

Meta has spent years trying to build a meaningful payments plus financial services distribution business in India. This investment appears to be an attempt to accelerate that effort.

Part of WhatsApp Pay's woes can be traced to regulatory restrictions, issues around data localisation, and privacy issues faced by the messaging application. NPCI had capped user onboarding to prevent any one player from dominating the UPI ecosystem. Those limits were only fully lifted in December 2024, allowing WhatsApp Pay to reach its entire Indian user base.

But even then, there has not been a widescale adoption of the service in India. Things had also slowed down after WhatsApp India head Abhijit Bose stepped down in 2022.

The impact of Cred

Cred was built around a simple proposition: rewarding users for paying their credit card bills on time. “I started Cred in 2018 with a belief that creditworthiness deserves to be rewarded,” Shah said announcing the deal on X.

Cred’s membership is restricted to users with a credit score above 750, making it a more premium platform than most consumer fintech apps.

As of FY25, it had 17 million monthly active users. While that is a small fraction of India's UPI base of about 500 million, they made payments worth Rs 8.5 lakh crore on the platform during the year.

Around 45% of active members used three or more Cred products, while the average annual revenue per user was about Rs 2,000.

Data and regulation

The transaction is also significant given India's evolving policy framework.

The deal comes as India is increasing oversight of the digital economy through the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, the Reserve Bank of India's digital payments security framework, NPCI's UPI market-share rules, and the Competition Commission of India's scrutiny of data-sharing practices.

These regulations are particularly important in the Meta-Cred deal. For instance, the DPDP Act places limits on how personal data can be used and shared. So, Meta's investment does not automatically grant it access to Cred's customer information.

This means that Shah's promise of "no access to member data" is not just an assurance, but based on regulation. The partnership offers strategic benefits, but within clearly defined regulatory boundaries.