THE US private equity firm Silver Lake has invested $747 million in Jio Platforms, the technology arm of India's Reliance Industries.
The deal values Jio Platforms at $64 billion, a company statement said on Monday (4). On April 22, Facebook announced an investment of $5.7 billion to acquire 9.99 per cent stake in Jio Platforms.
Jio Platforms is the umbrella entity of all the digital and internet businesses of Reliance, including mobile apps, broadband connectivity, smart devices, cloud computing, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, internet of things, augmented and mixed reality, and blockchain.
Reliance said the deal has 'special significance' as it comes at a time when the world economy, including India’s, has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are excited to leverage insights from their (Silver Lake) global technology relationships for the Indian digital society’s transformation,” said Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of RIL, who is also India’s richest person.
Silver Lake has investment in firms such as Airbnb, Alibaba, Ant Financial, Alphabet’s Verily and Waymo units, Dell Technologies, and Twitter. It has over $43 billion in combined assets under management and committed capital and a team of approximately 100 investment and operating professionals located around the world including in Silicon Valley, New York, London, and Hong Kong.
“The market potential they (Jio Platforms) are addressing is enormous, and we are honoured and pleased to have been invited to partner with Ambani and the team at Reliance and Jio to help further the Jio mission,” said Egon Durban, Silver Lake co-CEO and managing partner.
