The Brief: WhatsApp's new boss, flutterwave's banking ambitions and a founder's last stand
A startup founder takes charge of a platform used by three billion people. Meta has named CRED founder Kunal Shah as the new head of WhatsApp, replacing Will Cathcart, who is stepping down after more than seven years to build new products inside the company.
The appointment, announced this week, came about unusually: Meta's chief product officer, Chris Cox, first cold-emailed Shah for advice on who should lead the app, and the conversation turned into a recruitment. Alongside it, Meta is investing $900 million in Shah's fintech, CRED, valuing the company at $4.5 billion. India is WhatsApp's largest market, and the bet is that a founder who built consumer products there can push the platform deeper into payments, commerce and AI. It is a marker of how far emerging-market operators have moved toward the centre of global technology leadership.
A founder's last stand against the company he built. Bharat Thakrar started Scanad from a single desk in 1982 and grew it into WPP Scangroup, ringing the Nairobi bell in 2006 for an IPO that was six times oversubscribed. Ousted as chief executive in 2021 over misconduct allegations that a later investigation did not substantiate, he spent this year rallying minority holders to remove the entire board. At the AGM on 8 June, WPP voted its 56.26% controlling stake against every resolution, defeating the revolt despite broad support among independent shareholders. The case for change was stark — a 62% share-price decline since 2021 and more than KSh3bn in cumulative losses, with major clients including KCB, Equity, NCBA and Airtel departing. Thakrar's wider argument is the story: that founders should secure dual-class shares and board protections before ceding majority control, and that boards must answer to the shareholders who own them.
Flutterwave reframes itself as financial infrastructure. At Money 20/20 Europe, founder and CEO Olugbenga Agboola argued that stablecoins are not a standalone product but a faster settlement layer on Flutterwave's existing rails, and that compliance and last-mile payout are what keep that infrastructure indispensable. The positioning has a regulatory anchor: in April 2026 Flutterwave secured a national microlender licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria, letting it hold deposits and extend credit directly rather than through partner banks — a step from payments processor toward bank-like infrastructure.
Safaricom's record year (results retrospective). In full-year results published in May, Safaricom reported net income up 67.3% to KSh99.7bn and a record total dividend of KSh80.13bn for the year to March 2026, with Kenyan service revenue crossing KSh400bn for the first time. M-PESA generated KSh182.7bn, now close to half of service revenue — the clearest sign yet of a telecoms business that has become a financial-services business. CEO Peter Ndegwa framed it as the first year of the group's five-year strategy.
Dangote, by the verified numbers. Aliko Dangote remains Africa's wealthiest individual and the head of its largest industrial conglomerate, anchored by a petroleum refinery now processing 650,000 barrels a day — the through-line being import substitution and African industrialisation. (Reported expansion targets beyond this should be confirmed against a primary source before publication.)