Berkshire is in talks to invest 20 to 25 billion rupees in One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, India's largest mobile commerce platform. The investment would translate to a 3 to 4 percent stake in One97.
It's one of Buffett's first direct investment in India, the newspaper added. Paytm is India's biggest mobile commerce platform and is already backed by Japan's SoftBank and Chinese tech giant Alibaba and its fintech affiliate Ant Financial. Two years ago, Paytm said it saw a sizable growth in traffic when India unexpectedly pulled 86 percent of its cash from circulation, leading to a massive cash crunch. That allowed digital payment firms to provide an alternative mode of payment to India's consumers.