After Facebook, General Atlantic to Invest Rs 6,598 Cr in Jio

With this investment, Jio Platforms has raised Rs 67,194.75 crore from leading technology investors including Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, and General Atlantic in less than four weeks.

(Photo: The Quint)

In yet another mega-investment into Jio Platforms, Reliance Industries on Sunday announced an investment of Rs 6,598.38 crore by General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm.

General Atlantic's investment will translate into a 1.34 percent equity stake in Jio Platforms on a fully diluted basis. With this investment, Jio Platforms has raised Rs 67,194.75 crore from leading technology investors including Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, and General Atlantic in less than four weeks.

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

Jio Platforms, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, is a next-generation technology platform focused on providing high-quality and affordable digital services across India, with more than 388 million subscribers, the company statement said.

"Jio Platforms has made significant investments across its digital ecosystem, powered by leading technologies spanning broadband connectivity, smart devices, cloud and edge computing, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, augmented and mixed reality and blockchain," it said.

General Atlantic is a leading global growth equity firm with a 40-year track record of investing in the technology, consumer, financial services and healthcare sectors.

As an integrated team operating under a global investment platform across 14 locations, General Atlantic invests behind themes that are driven by innovation and entrepreneurship and supported by long-term secular growth, said the statement.

General Atlantic has a longstanding tradition of backing disruptive entrepreneurs and companies around the world, including Airbnb, Alibaba, Ant Financial, Box, ByteDance, Facebook, Slack, Snapchat, Uber and other global technology leaders.

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,” Ambani said.

Bill Ford, Chief Executive Officer of General Atlantic, said that as long-term backers of global technology leaders and visionary entrepreneurs, the company 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."

Akash Ambani, Director of Reliance Jio, said that the company is delighted that a renowned global investor like General Atlantic "is partnering with us in our journey to digitally empower India and Indians. Jio is committed to making a digitally inclusive India that will provide immense opportunities to every Indian citizen especially to our highly talented youth".

"General Atlantic's endorsement and partnership energises Jio's young team to set, and achieve, even more, ambitious goals in our onward march," he added.

The transaction is subject to regulatory and other customary approvals.