In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic almost $9 billion of American money has flowed into India’s largest telecom provider, a 4G player named Jio.
Facebook recently invested $5.7 billion in Jio, the telecom provider owned by Reliance Industries, the largest private sector company in India.
“We’re making a financial investment, and more than that, we’re committing to work together on some major projects that will open up commerce opportunities for people across India,” Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. Jio has 388 million subscribers in India, while Facebook’s WhatsApp has 400 million users, making it the platform’s biggest market.
This was followed by a spate of additional foreign money. Silver Lake, the private equity firm, invested $747 million in Jio Platforms. General Atlantic Partners invested $868 million for a 1.34 stake in the company. Private equity firm Vista Equity Partners will invest $1.5 billion in Reliance Jio. There is talk of similar investments coming in from Microsoft, from Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala and others.
