Less than a week after announcing a $870M investment from General Atlantic, India’s Jio Platforms is raising another $1.5B, this time marquee global PE firm, KKR. This adds to the already $8B+ investment that Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms has raised so far, from the likes of Facebook, Vista Equity, General Atlantic among others.
The investment is in line with Ambani’s target of divesting upto 20% of Jio Platforms. Going by the $65B valuation price tag, that would mean raising of a mammoth $13B through foreign investors, making it India’s larges single company FDI in history. Out of that expected $13B, $10B or so is already in, with the rest expected to be announced soon.
Speaking on the investment, Mukesh Ambani said, “I am delighted to welcome KKR, one of the world’s most respected financial investors, as a valued partner in our onward march to growing and transforming the Indian digital ecosystem for the benefit of all Indians.”
Much like the previous investments raised by Jio, KKR’s money will go into developing Jio’s proposed digital platform for India’s small and medium merchants. One of the products coming out of that suite of digital ecosysttem ‘JioMart’, has already gone live via Whatsapp. The company is developing these in partnership with Facebook, which was the first announced investor in the company and had put in $5.9B to co-develop this digital ecosystem.
KKR Co-founder and Co-CEO Henry Kravis said, “Few companies have the potential to transform a country’s digital ecosystem in the way that Jio Platforms is doing in India, and potentially worldwide. Jio Platforms is a true homegrown next generation technology leader in India that is unmatched in its ability to deliver technology solutions and services to a country that is experiencing a digital revolution.”
Jio Platforms fundraising spree is nothing that has been historically seen in India till now, specially for privately-held companies. The company has raised close to $10Bn now within a month, at a valuation that now stands at $65B. Almost all of the top global investment firms have bought a piece of Jio, including the likes of General Atlantic, Vista equity partners, Silver Lake and now KKR. This fund-raising spree was kicked off by Facebook in April-end.
