Mumbai : Berkshire Hathaway invested $356 million (around Rs 2,500 crore) in digital payments firm Paytm, according to sources.
Chairman Warren Buffett’s assistant, Debbie Bosanek, confirmed Berkshire’s investment in India’s One97 Communications in an email. She said Buffett was not involved in the transaction.
The deal would see Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway pick up 3-4 per cent share in One97 Communications, the parent firm of Paytm.
One of Buffett’s key investment deputies, Todd Combs, who is also seen as a potential chief investment officer at Berkshire, is leading the transaction.
The investment values the Alibaba and SoftBank-backed One97 Communications at over $10 billion.
The investment will add more muscle to Paytm’s operations as it competes against rivals like PhonePe and Google’s Tez. Paytm has also been aggressively diversifying its business into areas like investment management and e-commerce. In May last year, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank had pumped in $1.4 billion (over Rs 9,079 crore) into Paytm.
