India-based Jio Platforms, the digital services arm of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), is set to get US$747M from Silver Lake, a US private equity firm. This announcement comes two weeks after Jio received US$5.7 billion from Facebook.
According to the statement, this latest investment gives Jio an equity value of approximately US$65 billion and an enterprise value of almost US$68 billion, representing a 12.5% valuation of Social Media giant Facebook’s investment.
As the pandemic continues to affect businesses all over the world, this new investment from Silver Lake has special importance. “Comprehensive digitization will be a vital component of the revitalization of the Indian economy,” a statement from RIL stated.
Having around US$40 billion in combined assets and committed capital, the US-based Silver Lake has invested in several tech companies worldwide, including Ant Financial, Skype, Didi Chuxing, Airbnb, and Twitter.
Jio started commercial operations back in 2016, acting as an umbrella platform for services such as digital ecosystems, apps, and 4G data voice call services offered by RIL.
The investment from Facebook followed reports that the two platforms are planning to build a super app similar to WeChat. Shortly after the Facebook invested in Jio Platforms, RIL’s JioMart began testing a grocery shopping feature on WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook.