Paytm Is Pumped Up

Berkshire Hathaways investment means a faster transition for Paytm from payments to tech-enabled financial services.

- Deepti Chaudhary

For Indian investors and startup ecosystem stakeholders, U.S.-based Berkshire Hathaway’s investment in India’s largest digital payments firm, Paytm, is more than a funding announcement. It highlights the potential of India’s payments and fintech space and the ability of homegrown tech-enabled startups to grow into multibillion-dollar firms that can offer handsome returns to investors. For Paytm, besides validation from an investor renowned for its value buys in the financial services space, a larger cash coffer means a faster transition from payments to tech-enabled financial services.

Late last month, Paytm announced that Berkshire Hathaway has invested an undisclosed amount of capital in it. The debut investment by Berkshire is expected to be $300-350 million for a 3-4% stake, valuing the company at $10-12 billion, according to media reports. “We are lucky, lucky, lucky; not one time lucky but three times lucky. We are lucky that we got Alibaba; we are lucky that we made most of the moment of truth for mobile payments; and then we are totally lucky that we got Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway backing us, ” Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma told Fortune India.