New York-headquartered private equity fund General Atlantic will invest Rs 6,598.38 crore for a 1.34 percent stake in Jio Platforms, the technology subsidiary of Reliance Industries. This is the fourth major investment by a foreign player in Jio Platforms in barely a month, the other three being Facebook, Silver Lake Partners and Vista Equity Partners.

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The latest round of investment values Jio Platforms at an equity value of Rs 4.91 lakh crore and an enterprise value of Rs 5.16 lakh crore.

With this deal, Jio Platforms has cumulatively raised a little over Rs 67,000 over the last one month for a 14.8 percent stake.

This is General Atlantic's largest investment in Asia.

Commenting on the deal, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, said, “I am thrilled to welcome General Atlantic, a marquee global investor, as a valued partner. I have known General Atlantic for several decades and greatly admired it for its belief in India’s huge growth potential. General Atlantic shares our vision of a Digital Society for India and strongly believes in the transformative power of digitization in enriching the lives of 1.3 billion Indians. We are excited to leverage General Atlantic’s proven global expertise and strategic insights across 40 years of technology investing for the benefit of Jio."

Bill Ford, Chief Executive Officer of General Atlantic, said, “As long-term backers of global technology leaders and visionary entrepreneurs, we could not be more excited about investing in Jio. We share Mukesh’s conviction that digital connectivity has the potential to significantly accelerate the Indian economy and drive growth across the country. General Atlantic has a long track record working alongside founders to scale disruptive businesses, as Jio is doing at the forefront of the digital revolution in India.”

This investment continues to reaffirm Jio as a next-generation software product and platform company, and is also an endorsement of Jio’s tech capabilities and the potential of the business model in this Covid-19 world and beyond, the company said in a release.

This reemphasises Jio’s continuing attraction among global investors for its deep understanding of the Indian markets, the rapid digitisation opportunity post-COVID and its capabilities to bring cutting-edge technologies and tools such as AI, Blockchain, AR/VR, Big data into play for all Indians, the release said

In 2020, the telecom sector has seen investments worth Rs 83,626 crore from foreign investors. Nearly 75 percent, or Rs 67,194 crore, of that amount has gone to Reliance Jio alone.

(Disclaimer

: Reliance Industries Ltd., which also owns Jio, is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.)

First Published:May 17, 2020 5:16 PM IST