I’ve known @kunalb11 for 12+ years now, first as an investor in his company FreeCharge, then as a friend and confidant (and as an investor in his company CRED). Each time I met him, I came away boggled by how he uniquely fused a deep understanding of consumer psychology with incredible product t sense. CRED is not just a superb Indian consumer product; it’s one of the very best designed products in the world.
I would always wonder why Kunal was not bringing his talents to the rest of the world, and encouraged him a few times to launch CRED in the US, move to the Valley, or both.
It’s awesome and wholly unsurprising to see him bring his product chops and leadership to the #1 global consumer product. Great job by the Meta team on doing whatever it took to make this happen, and excited to welcome Kunal to the Valley, this time as a resident vs as a visitor.
Congrats buddy :)
It’s been a minute.
2015–2018 - Exited FreeCharge. Spent time learning and investing. - Pondered about: Why can't trust be rewarded? Started with $1M of personal capital. - Launched CRED to reward people for paying credit card bills on time.
2019–2025 - Built a system run by a team that values ownership, judgment, and craft. - Grew from 0 to 17M members by aligning incentives with behaviour. - Built several products during COVID lockdowns. - Raised $900M+ from global investors. Did 4 ESOP buybacks. - Made Indiranagar and IPL ads slightly more interesting. - Received a full stack of regulatory licences. - Lost 35 kilos. - Scaled from 0 to ~$325M ( ~₹3,200 crore) in annual revenue across payments, lending, insurance, commerce, wealth, and credit cards. 2026 - First profitable quarter (yet occasionally asked what our business model is) - Raised another $900M from Meta in primary and secondary capital. - Announcing our 5th ESOP buyback.
Today
CRED is ready for its next phase. I am stepping back and @miten steps in as interim CEO, partnered with an incredibly talented team. He has been heading strategy and finance and suffering me since 2020. I’m stepping away from the operating role and will continue as a shareholder. My commitment doesn’t change. Just the role.
Extremely grateful to our members, partners, regulators, and investors who made this possible. And to our board, Shailendra, Micky, Saurabh for their extraordinary conviction.
Team CRED, I’ll still expect you to be a 10x version of yourselves.
As for me, I’ll be joining Meta to lead WhatsApp globally.
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. I look forward to working with Mark, Chris, and the leadership across Meta for the next step in WhatsApp’s journey. Will, thank you for scaling something the world relies on quietly, and for making this transition smooth.
Onwards.
