Mumbai: Berkshire Hathaway Inc has picked up a 25 billion rupees (USD 356 million) stake in the parent of digital payments firm Paytm, a source said, its first investment in an Indian startup as it forays into the financial payments sector.

The conglomerate run by billionaire Warren Buffett confirmed in an email that Berkshire had invested in One97 Communications Ltd.

Paytm Payments Bank is still not allowed to add new customers and there is uncertainty over when this restriction would be lifted, said Paytm founder and Chief Executive Officer Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

At a mutual fund summit on Thursday, Sharma said he had a meeting with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials on the issue earlier during the day, but refrained from divulging details of the meeting.

Bengaluru: One97 Communications, the parent entity of Paytm has announced the launch of its AI Cloud computing platform “Paytm AI Cloud for India” for developers, startups and enterprises. The platform is mainly aimed at offering business-centric apps for organizations that need high-quality solutions for cloud computing, automate their workflow, easy payments, messaging and customer engagement without the hassle of managing hardware and software.

With an aim to expand its share in India’s growing online retail market, Paytm Mall targets a three-fold increase in its annualised gross sales, taking it up to $10 bn-mark by March 2019. Owned by Paytm E-commerce Pvt Ltd., Paytm Mall has ramped-up its efforts to expand the business.

Given how every depositor gets a digital debit card, Paytm Payments Bank has in less than a year of its launch notched up a large outstanding debit card user base.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data show the mobile wallet-to-payments bank entity had 39.12 million outstanding debit cards at the end of May.

New Delhi: Paytm, the digital payments provider run by One97 Communications Pvt. Ltd, has acquired savings management application Balance Tech for an undisclosed sum, the company said on Thursday.

As part of the acquisition, Balance Tech’s six-member team, including founders Ankit Kumar and Abhishek Malik, will join Paytm’s product and design department, the company said in a statement.

The widely heralded Jio moment of the mutual fund industry is right around the corner. Paytm is set to go live with its mutual fund distribution platform, Paytm Money, anytime this month. However, mutual fund distributors, which at the last count accounted for Rs 1.8 trillion of industry assets, are confident that there is no need for them to reshuffle their business model and reiterated the importance of timely advice for investors.

Mobile payments company Paytm is tying up all the loose ends before it officially rolls out Paytm Money, its mutual fund distribution platform. The company recently gave access to employees of its parent company, One97 Communications, and Paytm Money to test the beta version of Paytm Money app, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. The management is getting ready to launch the app in August.

New Delhi/Mumbai: Paytm Payments Bank has stopped enrolment of new customers on its platform following observations made by the Reserve Bank of India, four people with knowledge of the matter said. Paytm stopped enrolling new customers on 20 June following an audit by RBI

While anecdotal and empirical evidence both confirm online shopping is becoming more popular, e-commerce businesses continue to bleed because consumers need to be pampered with discounts, report Anushree Bhattacharyya in New Delhi. The many rounds of sales that e-retailers launch during the year are a sign it is not easy to convince consumers to buy.

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