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Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms has agreed to sell 1.34% stake to General Atlantic, the latest deal in a series of deals the top Indian telecom operator has secured in recent weeks.
On Sunday, General Atlantic said it would invest $869.8 million in the Indian firm, joining Facebook, Silver Lake, and Vista Equity Partners that have made sizeable bets on the three-and-a-half-year old Indian firm.
General Atlantic’s investment values Jio Platforms at $65 billion (equity valuation) — the same valuation implied by the Silver Lake and Vista deals and a 12.5% premium over Facebook’s deal, the Indian firm said.
Sunday’s announcement further illustrates the growing appeal of Jio Platforms, which has raised $8.85 billion in the last one month, to foreign investors looking for a slice in the fast-growing world’s second largest internet market.
General Atlantic, a high profile investor in consumer tech space, has invested in dozens of firms such as Airbnb, Alibaba, Ant Financial, Box, ByteDance, Facebook, Slack, Snapchat, and Uber. It has also made several investments in India including in NoBroker, a Bangalore-based startup that helps those looking to rent or buy an apartment connect directly with property owners, and edtech giants Unacademy and Byju’s.
“General Atlantic shares our vision of a Digital Society for India and strongly believes in the transformative power of digitization in enriching the lives of 1.3 billion Indians. We are excited to leverage General Atlantic’sproven global expertise and strategic insights across 40 years of technology investing for the benefit of Jio,” said Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Jio Platforms-parent firm Reliance Industries, in a statement.
More to follow…
https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/17/general-atlantic-reliance-jio-platforms/