India’s Jio Platforms secures $747m from US-based Silver Lake

Jio Platforms, the digital services arm of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), is set to receive US$747 million of investment from US private equity firm Silver Lake.

The announcement comes less than two weeks after Jio bagged US$5.7 billion from social networking giant Facebook.

According to a statement, the latest investment gives Jio an equity value of nearly US$65 billion and an enterprise value of around US$68 billion, representing a 12.5% premium to the valuation of the Facebook investment.

RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani / Photo credit: World Economic Forum

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to affect businesses globally, Silver Lake’s investment in Jio Platforms has a special significance.

“Comprehensive digitization will be a vital component of the revitalization of the Indian economy,” RIL said in a statement.

Having about US$40 billion in combined assets and committed capital, Silver Lake has invested in a wide array of tech companies worldwide including Skype, Ant Financial, Twitter, Airbnb, and Didi Chuxing.

Jio started commercial operations in 2016, acting as an umbrella platform for RIL’s digital initiatives such as its apps, digital ecosystems, and 4G data voice call services. Its US$5.7 billion raise from Facebook followed reports saying that the two companies were in talks to build a WeChat-like super app.

See: Why is Facebook betting $5.7b on Reliance?

Last week, shortly after Facebook’s investment, RIL’s ecommerce venture JioMart began testing a grocery shopping feature on Facebook-owned instant messaging app WhatsApp.