New Delhi: In the first week of February Paytm’s founder and chief executive officer Vijay Shekhar Sharma met board member Mark Schwartz in Canada. Schwartz, who’s also on the board of SoftBank Group Corp., had a proposal for him. Schwartz wanted to introduce Sharma to the world’s most renowned investor, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Sharma jumped at the opportunity and a few email exchanges later Sharma, Schwartz and SAIF Partners’ managing partner Ravi Adusumalli (Sharma refers to him as a co-founder), were on a flight to Omaha to meet Todd Comb, an investment manager at Berkshire Hathaway.
"We could not pick all the money that was offered. Berkshire wanted to invest more than what we have accepted"
- Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma
It was a snowy winter afternoon, coincidently Valentine’s Day, chuckles Sharma, while narrating the story. Sharma met Comb at Berkshire’s office.
The meeting stretched beyond the scheduled one hour to three-and-a-half, and everything from the weather and personal achievements to the Indian payments ecosystem and favourite cuisines were discussed.
“One meeting and two phone calls later, the deal was done,” said Sharma, in a telephonic interview on Tuesday. Edited excerpts:
What interested Berkshire in Paytm?
Probably, the scale and execution of the company.
What does Berkshire bring to the table other than the brand name?
They have global financial services experience. Todd is a banking, fintech and payments expert, and his experience will help us understand how the rest of the world is doing in the digital payments business. With Berkshire, we have a new vantage point on our capital table and business model. I can also say comfortably that this investment will put to rest all doubts about our ability to make money.... It gives credibility that such a business can make money.
Do you have plans to take this business global?
Right now the focus is India, as the India opportunity is huge. If we do great in India, we can be good in other geographies too.