Jio in a Fundraising Mode, Gets investment 4th & 5th ones from GA & KKR

Mukesh Ambani is unstoppable to bring one after another investment for his dream project, Jio to 'further propel Jio's vision of enabling a digital society for India'. In a month Jio Platforms fetched a hopping total of 78,562 crore rupees of investment from different American companies including social giant Facebook. 

Investment from Facebook, SilverLake and Vista Equity has already been published on my earlier post. Recent investments in Jio would be coming from General Atlantic Partners and KKR ＆ Co. Both companies are headquartered in New York.

General Atlantic is one of the early investor in Uber and Airbnb. Definitely they are looking towards change in India's digital ecosystem. 

Bill Ford, Chief Executive Officer of General Atlantic, said, “As long-term backers of global technology leaders and visionary entrepreneurs, we could not be more excited about investing in Jio. We share Mukesh’s conviction that digital connectivity has the potential to significantly accelerate the Indian economy and drive growth across the country. General Atlantic has a long track record working alongside founders to scale disruptive businesses, as Jio is doing at the forefront of the digital revolution in India.”

KKR (stands for Kohlberg, Krabis ＆ Roberts) has already invested in BMC Software, ByteDance and GoJek. China based ByteDance owns Tiktok, Indonesia company Gojek offers e-riding and digital payment services. KKR also owns EuroKids as last year they acquired majority stake from Gaja Capital, Indian private equity firm. KKR has its Indian division as well, KKR India. 

However investment in Jio Platforms by KKR is their highest one in Asia so far. 

Henry Kravis, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of KKR, said, “Few companies have the potential to transform a country’s digital ecosystem in the way that Jio Platforms is doing in India, and potentially worldwide. Jio Platforms is a true homegrown next-generation technology leader in India that is unmatched in its ability to deliver technology solutions and services to a country that is experiencing a digital revolution. We are investing behind Jio Platforms’ impressive momentum, world-class innovation and strong leadership team, and we view this landmark investment as a strong indicator of KKR’s commitment to supporting leading technology companies in India and Asia Pacific.”

Date	Company	Investment	Jio’s stake acquired
April 21	Facebook	Rs 43, 574 Cr	9.9%
May 4	SilverLake	Rs 5,655.75 Cr	1.15%
May 8	Vista Equity	Rs 11,367 Cr	2.32%
May 17	General Altantic Partners	Rs 6598.38 Cr	1.34%
May 22	KKR & Co.	Rs 11,367 Cr	2.32%

Abu Dhabi (UAE)’s Mubadala and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) are also in talks to pump nearly 2.7 billion dollar in Jio, as reported. 

Completely home grown, and greenfield mobile operator, Jio was emerged as a pure play 4G player in India, but transforms itself into a digital platform for the country. Truly speaking, Jio was Mukesh Ambani's dream project - not only to re-enter into telecom biz but also to change India's economy with its digital services. Launched in 2016, Jio just disrupted the market and became country's largest operator in just three years. 

Jio's parent RIL has deep money with effective and majority markethold in oil ＆ petro-chem and retail business. They are now targetting future markets to capture by thinking big and out-of-box. 

It's quite obvious Jio has some impressive plans under its hood and those are so impressive that global PE firms and Facebook are so glued that they could not resist to invest.
With top PE firms to invest, Jio will cut down its debt, get expertise in digital market from the veteran investors and save money for upcoming 5G auction and keep the 4G spectrum to further strengthen its position as data service provider and digital enabler.