When billionaire investment guru Warren Buffett acts, other investors pay attention. So when his multinational conglomerate holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, announced plans to make a sizable investment in a Brazilian fintech company called StoneCo in October 2018, individual and institutional investors alike became curious about this, at the time, relatively unknown company.

Based in Sao Paulo, the company is officially headquartered in the Cayman Islands. It employs more than 7,200 people. StoneCo utilized the most advanced technological capabilities in the electronic payment space and also stressed the importance of human connection, calling itself a customer-centered company. When you couple these reasons with StoneCo's financial position, it's no surprise why it attracted Berkshire Hathaway's attention.

Electronic Commerce in Brazil

The majority of transactions are conducted in cash in emerging market economies. But the cashless transaction industry is expanding thanks to booming mobile technology, including in Brazil, where more than 210 million cellular mobile connections occured in 2024.

StoneCo (STNE) provides an end-to-end, cloud-based technology platform for merchants to conduct 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:e-commerce using in-store, o🉐nline, and mobile channels. The cloud-based platform helps its clients to connect, facilitate transactions, receiv🌳e payments, and grow their businesses.

The company makes money by charging fees for its services. These include transaction payment processing, prepayment financing, subscription, and equipment rentals. The company's target audience is small- and medium-sized businesses. During 2024, StoneCo topped four million customers.

StoneCo Ltd.'s Growth

When StoneCo was launched in 2012, founders André Street and Eduardo Pontes had already spent 12 years working in the electronic payment and payment processing fields in Brazil. Although they achieved success before with their online payment technology firm (called Braspag), the pair shuttered this earlier operation to build StoneCo from scratch.

StoneCo launched an initial public offering (IPO) in 2018. The company offered about 50.7 million shares at $24 per share. In its 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果✨体彩网:Securities and Exchange Commi🍃ssion (SEC) filing, the firm claimed to have achieved substantial growth, margin expansion, and scale.

The company boasted a total revenue and income of about 636 million Brazilian reals (approximately $164.9 million at the exchange rate of the time) for the first six months of 2018. The IPO valued the company at $6.1 billion.

StoneCo also claimed to have captured more than 5.5% of Brazil's 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:market share for the second quarter of 2018, with more than 230,000 clients locked in by the third quarter of 2018. During 2019, its market share climbed to 9%. At the beginning of 2025, StoneCo's 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:market capitalization was around $2.41 billion.

StoneCo Ltd.'s Investors

With such impressive numbers in such a short period, StoneCo attracted the attention of investors at 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A/BRK.B). It purchased more than 14 million shares of StoneCo at the IPO price, making it an 11.3% owner of the company.

Berkshire Hathaway is known for focusing on 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:blue-chip stocks and predictable, consistent companies. Therefore, its investment in Sto𒅌neCo attracted a fair amount of attention in the industry.

A new interest in a largely untested fintech company marked a shift in 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Warren Buffett's typical investment approach. Buffett is also notoriously distrustful of IPOs. However, it was not Buffett himself who made this decision, but rather one of his heir apparent at Berkshire Todd Combs.

In large part due to Berkshire Hathaway's investment, StoneCo quickly rose to a position of prominence after its IPO. Its share price rose by 30% in the first days of trading. The company became one of Brazil's unicorns and was also ཧwidelyꦡ considered to be one of the most innovative payment companies in Brazil.

In addition to Berkshire Hathaway, the Chinese fintech giant Ant Financial, controlled by billionaire Jack Ma, also invested sizably in StoneCo. Other shareholders included Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital Inc.’s founders Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles, and Carlos Alberto Sicupira.

The Bottom Line

StoneCo is a Brazilian financial technology company that helps connect merchants and consumers through electronic commerce. It provides fintech solutions as well as cloud and electronic payment technology and point-of-sale platforms. Given its solid growth, it's not surprising that it caught the attention of Berkshire Hathaway. The conglomerate purchased a big chunk of StoneCo shares in 2018. Berkshire held these shares until early 2024, at which point it sold off its holdings.