Facebook-Backed Jio Platforms Gets $750M From Abu Dhabi Sovereign Fund As It Looks To Challenge Amazon, Walmart In India

Indian behemoth Reliance Industries Ltd.'s digital arm Jio Platforms has raised $750 million from Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, it announced Sunday.

What Happened

The investment will give Abu Dhabi Investment Authority a 1.16% stake in Jio, the latter said. Morgan Stanely MS advised Reliance on the investment.

ADIA's funding is the latest in a string of investments announced over the last months.

Facebook Inc. FB acquired a nearly 10% stake in the company for $5.7 billion in April.

The social media giant's investment was followed by four other United States-based firms. Silver Lake invested $748 million, General Atlantic put in $871 million, and Vista Equity Partners and KKR & Co. Inc. KKR each funded Jio with $1.5 billion.

The Indian telecom network company last week said it also raised another $1.5 billion from Abu Dhabi state-owned venture firm Mubadala.

Why It Matters

Investors are rushing to Jio's side at a time when it is preparing to enter India's e-commerce sector, in partnership with Facebook's WhatsApp, in a bid to challenge the dominance of Amazon.com Inc. AMZN and Walmart Inc. WMT subsidiary Flipkart.

Jio was launched publicly as a telecom network in 2016 by Asia's second-richest person Mukesh Ambani and has since expanded to a variety of digital services, including streaming video on demand, news, and music services.