The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.

By Shritama Bose and Ujjaini Dutta

MUMBAI/BENGALURU, June 23 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Meta’s boss can see the untapped fintech potential of WhatsApp. Buying 20% of CRED and founder Kunal Shah for $900 mln could help the global messaging app. But Shah’s expertise is with premium customers, not the masses, and India’s regulators could balk at the deal.

Full view will be published shortly.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X.

Follow Ujjaini Dutta on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

Meta Platforms will invest $900 million in CRED, valuing the Indian fintech ‌at roughly $4.5 billion, the company announced on June 22. The deal also puts the startup’s founder, Kunal Shah, in charge of WhatsApp globally.

Meta will get a minority stake in the Bengaluru-based company which rewards customers for paying their credit card bills on time and will not receive access to CRED customer ‌data.

CRED will receive ad credits worth an additional $100 million that can be used on Meta platforms, The Economic Times reported on June 22, citing a person aware of the deal terms. Shah is giving up his board seat, while retaining a personal shareholding of less than 20% in CRED, the report added. Meta’s stake will amount to roughly 20%.

CRED is working on a longer-term management structure as the company prepares for an eventual initial public offering, TechCrunch reported on the same day.