Brian Acton, the cofounder of the famous WhatsApp is gearing up to leave the company soon according to VentureBeat. Acton made his intentions clear in a Facebook post Tuesday evening.
Brian said is in the process of transitioning his responsibilities to other engineers at the company and will officially leave in November and set off for a new path.
“I’ve decided to start a nonprofit focused at the intersection of nonprofit, technology, and communications,” Acton wrote.
“It’s something I’ve thought about for a while, and now it’s time to just focus and execute. I’ll have more to share in the coming months.”
Also read: What China Banning Petrol & Diesel Cars Means For Uganda
This came as shock for some when Acton decided it was time he moved on to something new. In 2009, Acton and Jan Koum, the current CEO launched WhatsApp which went on to become one of the most-used chat apps with over 1 billion active users.
WhatsApp is estimated to have around 1.3 billion active monthly users and 1 billion daily users respectively. In 2014, WhatsApp was sold to Facebook for record breaking price of more than $16 billion.
Acton’s decision to leave the company came right after WhatsApp launched its monetisation plan which is centered around connecting businesses with WhatsApp users. It’s rivals like Skype, Twitter and Facebook Messenger are also planning to do same.
The new monetisaton plan by WhatsApp contradicts its earlier goal to never sell ads, but with recent developments Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t seem to be into the idea.
According to Forbes, Acton’s estimated net worth is around $6.5 billion. Acton had been in charge of the company’s engineering team, according to Recode.
