WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton to leave company

Brain Acton plans to start a non-profit venture of his own.

Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, speaks at the WSJD Live conference in Laguna Beach, California October 25, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake (Reuters)

Brian Acton, one of the co-founders of WhatsApp, on Wednesday announced that he was departing from the company. Brian said that he will be soon starting a non-profit venture of his own. Acton's departure comes almost three years after the company was acquired by Facebook in 2014.

"After 8 years at WhatsApp, I have decided to move on and start a new chapter in my life," Acton wrote on Facebook. "I have decided to start a non-profit focused at the intersection of nonprofit, technology and communications," he added.

"I am very fortunate at my age to have the flexibility to take new risks and focus on what I'm passionate about," he said.

Acton had co-founded WhatsApp with Jan Koum in 2009 and agreed to sell it to Facebook in 2014 for approximately $19 billion USD in cash and stock. With Facebook acquisition, the company saw a lot of changes in its idealogies, for example opening the platform to businesses. Just recently, WhatsApp announced conducting a beta test of its WhatsApp for Business tool. The company is now giving away a green badges to the verified business accounts. WhatsApp also had come under scanner for sharing some data with Facebook.

WhatsApp boasts 1 billion daily users, making it the biggest instant messaging application. The messaging app is quite popular in emerging markets such as India. The company has more than 200 million monthly active users in the country.