General Atlantic to invest $870M in Reliance Jio Platforms

The investment made in exchange of 1.34% stakes can prove to be substantial in the growth of Reliance Jio platforms.

General Atlantic, a New York-based equity firm has decided to invest $870 million in Reliance Jio Platforms in exchange for 1.34% stakes of the Indian telecom operator. General Atlantic is the fourth American speculator to invest in the company along with Silver Lake, Facebook and Vista Equity Partners in the last 4 years.

The recent investment has put Jio Platforms’s value at $65 billion in association with similar investments by Silver Lake and Vista, along with a premium of 12.5% by Facebook.

According to the announcement made on Sunday, Jio platforms have sold about 14.7% of its stake and raised $8.85 billion in the past one month. The stakes have been sold to several foreign investors who are looking to step into the second largest internet market in the world.

General Atlantic, a high profile investor in the consumer tech space that has invested in dozens of firms such as Ant Financial, Box, Facebook, Airbnb, Uber, Alibaba, Snapchat and Slack has been the main investor in India for over 10 years however it has kept away from wagers in the field. It has also invested in several Indian startups, namely, NoBroker, a Bangalore-based startup that serves those hoping to lease or purchase a property with land owners, edu-tech companies like Unacademy and Byju’s and National Stock Exchange of India among many others.

Ambani, Director of Reliance Industries, said that with the help of General Atlantic’s strategic knowledge and expertise of 40 years could be leveraged to grow the two firms together.

He also stated that General Atlantic is in accordance with our vision to bring digitalization in India and firmly has faith in the transformative influence of digitization in enhancing the lives of billions of Indians.