Silver Lake To Invest $748M In India's Jio Platforms, Weeks After Facebook's $5.7B Investment

Private equity firm Silver Lake is investing $748.3 million in Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd's digital arm Jio Platforms, the latter announced Monday.

What Happened

The move comes two weeks after Facebook Inc. FB said it was investing $5.7 billion in Jio in exchange for a 10% stake.

Silver Lake's investment values Jio at about $68 billion, a 12.5% premium to the equity valuation of Facebook's investment.

Why It Matters

Jio was publicly launched in 2016 by Asia's second-richest man Mukesh Ambani, and has since become the country's largest telecom operator, undercutting competitors with its radically low data prices.

"Silver Lake is one of the most respected voices in technology and finance. We are excited to leverage insights from their global technology relationships for the Indian Digital Society's transformation," Ambani said in a statement, according to TechCrunch.

The company has lately ventured into other internet-based services, including video on demand, music streaming, and news apps.

This is the latest in a string of investments by Silver Lake this year that included Twitter Inc. TWTR, Airbnb Inc., and Expedia Group Inc. EXPE.

"Jio Platforms is one of the world's most remarkable companies, led by an incredibly strong and entrepreneurial management team who are driving and actualizing a courageous vision," the investment firm's managing partner Egon Durban said, as reported by TechCrunch.
"The market potential they are addressing is enormous, and we are honored and pleased to have been invited to partner with Mukesh Ambani and the team at Reliance and Jio to help further the Jio mission."