Reliance-owned Jio Platforms has been raising money left and right from the past few months, stocking up for its transition into a full fledged technology company. And even though one of those mega deals (Facebook-Jio deal) is currently under investigation from India’s antitrust watchdog, the company isn’t letting that slow its fund raising spree. Jio Platforms announced today, raising of a staggering $1.5Bn (~Rs. 11,367 crore) from Saudi Arabia’s PIF, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds.
As a result of this deal, the company will let go off 2.32% of its stake, making it the larges such deal after Facebook’s $5.7Bn in April this year.
This marks the 11th such investment for the company in a matter of 9 weeks, having raised close to $15Bn in total for parting with 24.7% of its equity stake. The latest deal values the largest telecom operator of India at an equity valuation of Rs 4.91 lakh crore and an enterprise valuation of Rs 5.16 lakh crore. It also makes Jio Platforms, the holder of a record for the largest continuous fundraising by a company anywhere in the world.
So far, companies like General Atlantic, Silver Lake (twice), Vista Equity Partners, KKR, sovereign funds Mubadala and ADIA, TPG and L Catterton have taken part in Jio’s funding rounds. Most notably, Facebook bought a 9.99% stake in the company for Rs $5.7 Billion on April 22, becoming the largest minority stakeholder in Mukesh Ambani’s dream project.
Jio, a company that started as a telecom venture under Reliance in 2016, has managed to become the largest telecom operator in one of the biggest mobile phone markets in the world. By providing free Internet for months and then announcing one of the cheapest data rates in the world, Jio has managed to dominate the market and leave old players like Airtel and Idea in the dust. However, Mukesh Ambani being Mukesh Ambani isn’t content with this progress, and wants to transition his company to a technology led platform.
The company launched Jio Apps when it first launched, without any notable success. Now, Jio is gearing up to become India’s own Amazon, and is raising money to deplete debt.
That being said, not every move the company made is panning out. Recently, the Facebook Jio deal has been picked up by the Competition Commission of India under suspicions of anti competitive activities. The body will review the deal, and make sure that it does not affect competition in any concerned markets.
