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By:

Kiran D. Tare

21 August 2024 at 11:23:13 am

From Mumbai to Meta

Kunal Shah’s rise from city entrepreneur to global head of WhatsApp signals that India is producing genuine architects of the digital age. For much of the internet era, the world’s defining digital products were imagined in California. The next chapter looks markedly different. Artificial intelligence, digital finance and ubiquitous connectivity have flattened the distance between Silicon Valley and the rest of the world. Increasingly, the most interesting ideas are emerging not merely from...

From Mumbai to Meta

Kunal Shah’s rise from city entrepreneur to global head of WhatsApp signals that India is producing genuine architects of the digital age. For much of the internet era, the world’s defining digital products were imagined in California. The next chapter looks markedly different. Artificial intelligence, digital finance and ubiquitous connectivity have flattened the distance between Silicon Valley and the rest of the world. Increasingly, the most interesting ideas are emerging not merely from American technology giants but other countries. Few people embody that transition better than Kunal Shah. His recent appointment as the global head of WhatsApp, following Meta’s $900 million investment in CRED, represents the arrival of an Indian entrepreneur at the helm of one of the world’s most consequential digital platforms. Unlike many celebrated founders whose credentials begin with engineering degrees, Shah’s intellectual roots lie elsewhere. A graduate in philosophy from Mumbai’s Wilson College, he briefly enrolled for an MBA. However, rather than collecting qualifications, he accumulated ideas, ranging effortlessly across economics, psychology, incentives and consumer behaviour. His social-media essays and public lectures have acquired an almost cult following among entrepreneurs because they treat business less as accounting than as applied anthropology. His entrepreneurial journey mirrors India’s own digital awakening. Long before smartphones transformed everyday commerce, Shah recognised that friction was the enemy of adoption. His first venture, FreeCharge, helped familiarise millions of Indians with digital payments during a period when cash remained king. Its success made him one of the pioneers of India’s fintech revolution. Following its sale, Shah resisted the temptation to launch another fashionable startup immediately. Instead, he spent years investing in young companies, observing founders and dissecting consumer behaviour with the patience of an academic. That unusually reflective interlude shaped CRED, the company he founded in 2018 around a deceptively simple proposition that trust should carry economic value. Many regarded the idea as eccentric. Why reward consumers merely for paying their credit-card bills on time? But Shah saw something deeper. Modern economies increasingly depend upon trust and reputation. CRED transformed disciplined financial behaviour into a platform that eventually expanded into lending, commerce, insurance, wealth management and payments. Today the company serves around 17 million monthly active members, and has attracted more than $900 million from global investors. It generates annual revenues of roughly $325 million. Importantly, these figures signify that patient product thinking can triumph over fashionable exuberance. Shah’s influence extends well beyond the companies he has founded. He has become perhaps India’s most prolific angel investor, backing more than 250 startups while mentoring hundreds of entrepreneurs. His counsel has shaped businesses across sectors, while advisory roles with Peak XV Partners, Pine Labs and industry bodies have given him an outsized influence over the direction of India’s startup ecosystem. Shah has consistently argued that enduring businesses are built not on funding rounds but on understanding incentives, habits and human psychology. Those qualities explain why Meta came calling. Mark Zuckerberg praised Shah’s “builder mentality” while Meta’s Chief Product Officer, Chris Cox, highlighted his grasp of how WhatsApp fits into people’s everyday lives. That endorsement recognises that the future of messaging lies increasingly beyond messaging itself. Artificial intelligence, digital payments, commerce and business communication are converging into a single ecosystem. Few executives possess practical experience across all four domains. India offers perhaps the clearest glimpse of that future. It is WhatsApp’s largest market, its most sophisticated laboratory for business messaging and an increasingly important arena for digital payments. Shah understands this ecosystem instinctively because he helped build it. His career has unfolded alongside India’s digital public infrastructure, the smartphone revolution and the emergence of one of the world's most dynamic entrepreneurial cultures. There is something symbolically satisfying about the appointment. While technology has long celebrated engineers who solve computational problems, Shah belongs to a different tradition of the entrepreneur who begins by asking why people behave as they do. His greatest strength lies in understanding incentives, trust and networks. History suggests that the most transformative technology leaders are rarely prisoners of technology alone. They are students of people. In elevating Kunal Shah to lead WhatsApp, Meta is betting that the next era of the internet will be shaped less by algorithms than by a deeper understanding of the billions of human beings who use them. Judging by Shah’s career so far, that is a wager with every chance of paying handsome dividends.

Discussions on among allies for govt formation: Ajit Pawar

Updated: Nov 29, 2024

Ajit Pawar

Mumbai: Deputy Chief Minister and NCP head Ajit Pawar on Monday said discussions were underway among the Mahayuti partners to finalise a formula for the new government formation in the state.


Speaking to reporters at Karad in Satara district, Pawar also acknowledged the contribution of the government's Ladki Bahin scheme, which provides financial assistance to women, in the Mahayuti's victory in the just-concluded state assembly polls.


The NCP leader also assured that the alliance was working cohesively following its resounding victory in the state assembly elections.


Pawar paid tributes to Maharashtra's first chief minister Yashwantrao Chavan at his memorial in Karad on his death anniversary.


In the state poll results declared on Saturday, the Mahayuti, which comprises the BJP, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP, bagged an impressive 230 of the 288 assembly seats.


The focus has been on BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is being seen as a strong contender to occupy the top post for the third time, as his party bagged 132 of the 149 seats it contested in the state.


Notably, Maharashtra minister and Shiv Sena leader Deepak Kesarkar has said his party legislators feel Eknath Shinde should continue as the chief minister of the state, where the ruling Mahayuti scored a landslide victory in the assembly polls.


Ajit Pawar said, "We will decide what formula to work out on the cabinet formation among the three parties."


Reflecting on the elections, he acknowledged the contribution of the Ladki Bahin scheme in the Mahayuti's win.


"We cannot ignore that Ladki Bahin helped us in this election. We are grateful to them (women voters)," he said.


Defending the scheme, Pawar, who is also the state finance minister, further said, "Had I been opposed to the Ladki Bahin scheme, I would not have presented it in the House. I discussed the scheme with several retired finance officers before finalising it."


Pawar also dismissed concerns raised by some opposition leaders over the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), pointing out that polls in states like Punjab, West Bengal and Telangana, governed by their political opponents, have been conducted with the same system.


Commenting on members of same families contesting against each other during the elections, Pawar expressed annoyance over repeated questions on it.


He then asked, "Why was my close nephew fielded? Atram's own daughter was fielded against him, and even Rajendra Shingne faced a similar challenge. I don't want to comment further on this. I have got tired of apologising for fielding my wife against Supriya. Yugendra was in business, then why was he prepared to contest against me?"


In the Baramati assembly seat, Ajit Pawar was pitted against his nephew and NCP (SP) candidate Yugendra Pawar.


In Aheri seat, NCP leader Dharamraobaba Atram's daughter Bhagyashree Atram contested against him on NCP (SP) ticket.

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