By M&M Reporter
Billionaire Warren Buffet has invested US$300 million in Indians tech giant One97 communication which operates online payment platform, Paytm.
Paytm is used as a payment channel by more than 7 million merchants in India in exchange for a 4 percent fee.
In exchange, Buffet will get a 2.9 percent shareholding in the tech firm, India’s respected newspaper Business Standard reported yesterday.
Buffet was not directly involved in the transaction which was made through Berkshire Hathaway International Holdings.
“According to regulatory filings sourced from Paper.vc, One97 Communications issued 1.7 million shares to BH International Holdings on September 27. Post the investment, Berkshire Hathaway will have around 2.9 per cent holding in the Indian firm,” reporter Business Standard.
Paytm’s value post the investment will stand at US$10 billion.
The investment was yet to be officially announced by either Berkshire Hathaway or Paytm by the time the newspaper broke the news.
The investment comes at a time when Paytm is going up against global giants Google and Facebook-owned WhatsApp. Both the US giants have either launched or are in the process of launching their digital payment products built on top of India’s indigenous payment syst
em UPI.
