Reliance Jio Platforms and Silver Lake's Total Investment: What This Means For You

Reliance Industries has confirmed that investment firm Silver Lake has made a second, additional investment of Rs 4,546.80 crore into Jio Platforms. This brings the firm’s total investment in Jio Platforms up to Rs 10,202.55 crore, for a total stake of 2.08 percent. This investment values Jio Platforms at an equity value of Rs 4.91 lakh crore, and an enterprise value of Rs 5.16 lakh crore. This was the seventh round of investment that Jio Platforms has picked up in six weeks, after Abu Dhabi-based sovereign investment firm Mubadala Investment Company picked up a 1.85 percent stake for Rs 9,093.60 crore. Other investors in Jio Platforms so far has included Facebook, Vista Partners, KKR and General Atlantic.

Jio’s vision is to enable a Digital India for 1.3 billion people and businesses throughout India, especially small merchants, micro-businesses and farmers. Jio Platforms is a technology company building a Digital Society for India. The idea is to bring Jio’s leading digital apps, digital ecosystems and India’s top high-speed connectivity platforms under one umbrella. Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, which provides connectivity platform to over 388 million subscribers, will continue to be a wholly- owned subsidiary of Jio Platforms. Reliance Jio says the investment by Silver Lake is further testament to the world-class digital platform that Jio has built which includes Broadband connectivity, Smart Devices, Cloud and Edge Computing, Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Augmented and Mixed Reality and Blockchain.

Commenting on the additional investment, Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd, said, “Silver Lake and its co-investors are valued partners as we continue to grow and transform the Indian digital ecosystem for the benefit of all Indians. We are pleased to have their confidence and support, as well as the benefit of their leadership in global technology investing and their valued network of relationships, as we drive the Indian Digital Society’s transformation. I would like to emphasise that Silver Lake’s additional investment in Jio Platforms, within a span of five weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic, is a strong endorsement of the intrinsic resilience of the Indian economy, which will surely grow bigger with comprehensive digital enablement.”

Egon Durban, co-CEO and managing partner of Silver Lake, also said about the investment, “We are excited to increase our exposure and bring more of our co-investors into this opportunity, further supporting Jio Platforms in its mission to bring the power of high-quality and affordable digital services to a mass consumer and small businesses population. The investment momentum behind Jio validates a compelling business model and underscores our admiration for Mukesh Ambani, his team and their courageous vision in creating and building one of the world’s most remarkable technology companies.”

Silver Lake is the global leader in large-scale technology investing. Its mission is to build and grow great companies by partnering with world-class management teams. Its investments have included Airbnb, Alibaba, Ant Financial, Alphabet’s Verily and Waymo units, Dell Technologies, Twitter and numerous other global technology leaders.