Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway invests $300 million in Paytm
Summary
One97 Communications Limited, the parent firm of digital payments company Paytm, has raised $300 million from billionaire investor Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway Inc.One97 raised the investment through allotment of 17,02,713 fully paid equity shares from BH International Holdings through private placement basis on September 27, 2018, according to the regulatory documents filed by One97, which were sourced from business intelligence platform Paper.vc. BH International Holdings is a Cayman Islands-based entity of Berkshire Hathaway which is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.Last month One97 revealed Berkshire is joining Ant Financial, SoftBank, Alibaba and SAIF Partners as key shareholders in the company. Todd Combs, the investment manager at Berkshire Hathaway, has joined the companys board of directors.Berkshires experience in financial services and long-term investment horizon is going to be a huge advantage in Paytms journey of bringing 500 million Indians to the mainstream economy through financial inclusion, Paytm Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, had said in a statement.Todd Combs, investment manager, Berkshire Hathaway had said that he was impressed by Paytm and was excited about being a part of its growth story, "as it looks to transform payments and financial services in India.The investment comes at a time when Paytm is facing a fierce competition from rivals such as Googles mobile payment service Google Pay [Tez] and Flipkarts PhonePe. Facebook-owned WhatsApp which has more 200 million users in India is also eyeing booming digital payments market in the country. Paytm recently alleged that Google Pay is violating data privacy norms.