India's Jio Platforms set for record Asia growth capital fundraise

Jio Platforms is the holding company for various internet and telecom assets owned by India's Reliance Industries. Reliance Industries, the parent of Jio Platforms, has received backing from 10 external investors in recent weeks. Together, they will own nearly a quarter of the company. Reliance Industries confirmed PIF's participation in a statement.

Though not positioned as a single funding round in the traditional sense, the series of investments amounts to more than Ant Financial's $14 billion Series C round in 2018. That fundraising exercise valued the Chinese company at $150 billion. Reliance says Jio is valued at INR4.91 trillion ($65 billion). 

However, PIF's commitment comes shortly after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) announced plans to review the involvement of Facebook - which is poised to take a 9.9% stake - in Jio Platforms. The social networking giant has argued that the investment would not harm competition within the advertising services sector or within the messaging app domain. Facebook-owned WhatsApp is the leading messaging app in the country. Bloomberg reported that the CCI representatives appear to be concerned that the company could get access to the personal data of Indian citizens.

Founded in November last year, Jio Platforms is the parent of India's Reliance Jio Telecom, the country’s leading mobile carrier which claims to have more than 387.5 million subscribers. Reliance Industries has positioned Jio Platforms’ app ecosystem as a gateway to the internet for first-time users of mobile internet services. Other subsidiaries are working to expand the company’s presence in broadband services, cable television, and e-commerce.

It is expected that the company will offer a bundled package that would be accessible to Indians currently priced out from high-speed internet and streaming-related content services. At the same time, a network of Jio-branded convenience stores is expected to fulfill online orders on JioMart, the company’s daily goods-themed e-commerce platform, with inventory supplied by Jio-owned warehouses.

JioMart stores have begun operations in several cities in the country. WhatsApp, which is trying to roll out a payment service in the country, is being used as an order tracking app for the JioMart service. Analysts predict further integration including in-app payment or chat-based ordering functionalities in the future.

Several media reports have indicated that Reliance plans to explore a public listing in the US next year with a target valuation of $90-95 billion. 

PIF is Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Previous investment activity in Asia includes the acquisition of a 38% stake in South Korea’s Posco Engineering & Construction. Additional indirect exposure to the region - among other geographies - comes through a $45 billion commitment to the SoftBank Vision Fund.

PIF also owns Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil exporter. According to a filing by Reliance Industries, Saudi Aramco acquired a 20% stake in another Reliance subsidiary - an oil-to-chemicals division - for $15 billion last year. The deal has yet to be finalized.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Expansion
• Technology
• Reliance Strategic Business Ventures Limited
• Public Investment Fund
• TMT
• India