Investment holding company Berkshire Hathaway provided an amount of funding for One97 Communications, an India-based e-commerce and financial services platform backed by several corporate investors, yesterday at a reported $10bn valuation.
Although One97 did not disclose the terms of the deal, the Economic Times had previously reported that Berkshire Hathaway had been in talks to invest between Rs 20bn and Rs 25bn ($285m to $356m) at a valuation of more than $10bn.
One97 operates both Paytm, a financial services platform that allows users to pay bills and top up their phone credit, and Paytm Mall, a diversified e-commerce marketplace that offers consumer goods alongside transport and cinema tickets.
The company unveiled a banking service earlier this year but stopped signing up new customers in June after orders from India’s financial regulator.
Earlier reports suggested One97 would formally split Paytm Money and Paytm Mall, but both appear to still be operating from the same online portal.
Todd Combs, an investment manager for Berkshire Hathaway, has joined Paytm’s board of directors. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and chief executive of Paytm, said in a blog post confirming the deal: “We feel both excited and humbled by this endorsement.
“Berkshire’s experience in financial services, and long-term investment horizon, is going to be a huge advantage in Paytm’s journey of bringing 500 million Indians to the mainstream economy through financial inclusion.”
Paytm Mall secured $445m in funding from telecommunications and internet group SoftBank and e-commerce firm Alibaba earlier this year, according to a regulatory filing, following $200m from Alibaba and private equity firm SAIF Partners in March 2017.
SoftBank made a $1bn equity investment in One97 in May 2017 at a $7bn valuation alongside $400m in secondary share buys, bringing its overall funding to $1.8bn.
One97’s earlier backers include Alibaba and its financial services affiliate Ant Financial, which provided $680m in funding in 2015, semiconductor producer MediaTek, which invested $60m at a $4.8bn valuation in 2016, chipmaker Intel, Silicon Valley Bank and Sapphire Partners.