Paytm sealed the Warren Buffett deal with 1 meeting, 2 phone calls

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.

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.

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