WhatsApp's Neeraj Arora quits; marks yet another high-profile exit at Facebook

Neeraj Arora, who has been WhatsApp's business head for 11 years, has quit the company, marking another high-profile exit at the popular messaging app.

Arora, who is a native of Delhi, first made headlines in 2014 when WhatsApp was acquired by social networking giant Facebook.

He was credited with being an important reason for why the deal was structured the way it was.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Arora said  he would be "taking some time off to recharge and spend time with family".

"I am deeply indebted to Jan and Brian, who entrusted me to be their business companion for so many years..." he said.

WhatsApp Co-founder Jan Koum quit the company in May. Brian Acton is the other co-founder.

WhatsApp has been facing challenges in several key markets including India, with governments asking it to fix the spread of misinformation.

The company recently appointed Ezetap founder Abhijit Bose as India head. Bose will assume his new role from next year.

The Indian government has been asking WhatsApp to fix the problem of fake news messages.

Of its 1.5 billion monthly active users, over 200 million are in India, making it one of the largest markets for the Facebook-owned company across the globe.

“WhatsApp is grateful for the dedication, focus, and outstanding work of our early leaders and team. We remain deeply committed to providing a way for people to communicate privately now and in the future,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said.