Billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought a stake in India's largest digital payments company, Paytm, the company confirmed Monday.
Berkshire confirmed "the investment was made" in One97 Communications — the parent company of Paytm — and said Buffett was not personally involved in the deal.
The Economic Times reported earlier Monday Berkshire was in talks to invest between 20 billion to 25 billion rupees ($286 million to $357 million) and pick up a 3-4 percent stake in One97 Communications.
The news was also reported by Mint, an Indian financial daily newspaper.
A deal that size would value Paytm at over $10 billion, according to the Economic Times. The newspaper said that Todd Combs, one of Berkshire's key fund managers, is leading the transaction. He is reportedly seen as a potential chief investment officer at the firm.
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.
