India-based One97 Communications, the parent company of financial services giant Paytm, has reportedly received a $300m investment from Berkshire Hathaway.
The value of the investment could increase dependent on how the company performs, according to an article by the Financial Times which cites people close to the matter. This deal would mark Berkshire Hathaway’s largest investment into India, the article stated.
Earlier in the year, the e-commerce division of the company, Paytm Mall, picked up a $445m investment from Softbank and Alibaba. The investment was led by Japan-based mega-fund Softbank Vision Fund which supplied $400m of the capital.
Paytm is a mobile-based financial services platform that offers payments, banking, lending and insurance products. The platform implements a range of solutions including QR-based payments and an online banking app that serves over 500 million unserved and underserved consumers in India.
Last month, Paytm has acquired personal finance developer Balance.Tech to support the enhancement of its user and merchant interfaces.
The company also recently formed a partnership with SoftBank and Yahoo Japan’s joint venture PayPay. This new solution is a smartphone-based payments app which completes cashless transactions through QR and barcode scanning. Through the partnership, the companies will look to launch the service to Japan.
India’s FinTech sector was dominated by the payments and remittances space last year, receiving 84 per cent of the capital. According to data by FinTech Global, this huge percentage is due to four investments in the space valued over $1bn.
One of these colossal investments was a $1.4bn venture round by One97 Communications, which was supplied by Softbank. The three other deals were into India-based e-commerce platform Flipkart.
Earlier in the year, US retailer giant acquired a 77 per cent stake in Flipkart in a deal worth $16bn.
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