Jio Platforms has one more investor ready to pitch in $1-2 billion

This may be June. But at Jio Platforms it might be December with Santa seemingly dealing out one gooodie after another in unending profusion.

The company which has had eight separate investments (from seven investors) over the last two months, is set for one more. This time it is said to be from global investor TPG Capital.

According to a news report in Economic Times, Jio Platforms, from the stable of India's richest man Mukesh Ambani, is in the process of roping in San Francisco-based tech investor TPG Capital.

The news report claimed that the private equity firm was in active talks with Jio and was likely to put in $1-2 billion.

TPG is an investor in several top global technology disruptors such as Uber, AirBnB and SurveyMonkey.

A formal announcement is likely to drop in a couple of days.

Jio is rampant

As of now, Jio Platforms, the digital subsidiary of Reliance Industries, has received an investment commitment of close to $13 billion (Rs 97,885.65 crore) against a dilution of 21.06 per cent stake, with the last one coming from Abu Dhabi government's global investment arm Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). The other investors include: Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista, General Atlantic and KKR, Mubadala and Silver Lake again in seven weeks.

Jio Platforms, with more than 388 million subscribers in its three-and-a-half-year existence, is blazing a hot trail that its competitors are finding it impossible to match.

Jio 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.

(Your one-stop guide to Jio Platforms and its investors is here).

Junior Ambanis to the fore

Jio Platforms, was created as a subsidiary of RIL in October last year to bring together all digital and mobility businesses under one roof. The new entity has become the parent of Reliance Jio Infocomm and applications like MyJio, JioTV, JioCinema, JioNews and JioSaavn, besides content-generation ventures.

Jio Platforms is also being seen as the fief of the two Ambani scions --- Akash and Anant.

Akash Ambani, the elder of next generation Ambanis, is presented by Indian financial newspapers as the person behind these major investment deals.

Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Mukesh Ambani, has been formally inducted into the family empire as additional director in Jio Platforms.

The idea is to build Jio Platforms like Alibaba and Google, which claim high valuations in the stock markets.

The stake sales are part of Jio Platforms' parent company RIL's (Reliance Industries) plan to be debt-free by March. Most likely, the target is likely to be achieved by December, with Reliance already securing Rs 53,124 crore from a rights issue that closed on 4 June.

Harbinger of hope for India

Jio Platforms getting a bucket-load of heavy-duty investments from global biggies also augurs well for Indian business sentiments.

In a climate of anti-China, both in India and elsewhere, these deals are seen as a big booster for India Inc. Some experts see it as a post-coronavirus trend, when the American and Middle-East based global corporations tilt towards India, as against China.

This is also the trigger for other companies in India to seek out big investors from elsewhere. Bharti Airtel is reportedly in talks with Amazon and Vodafone Idea was said to be negotiating with Google, though the latter one has been denied by the company.

Source: Economic Times

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