Warren Buffett, Goldman Win From Fintech Gold Rush in India
Money is pouring into India’s fintech sector at an unprecedented pace
A BharatPe employee discusses the digital payment system with a store owner in New Delhi.
Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg
China’s transformation from a financial-technology backwater into a $46 trillion-a-year global leader in digital payments left most international investors watching in awe from the sidelines. Now India is undergoing its own fintech revolution, and the race is on to grab a piece of the action.
As online payments and digital loans in the second-most populous country soar at some of the fastest rates worldwide, money is pouring into India’s financial technology sector at an unprecedented pace. The sector’s sharp ascent will be on show this month as Indian payments firm Paytm — backed by foreign heavyweights including Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Group Corp. — seeks a valuation of about $20 billion in what would be India’s largest ever initial public offering.