The Indian tech company announced Friday that it had insured 113.7 billion rupees ($ 1.5 billion) from the US private equity giant KKR.
With this last injection of money, owner Mukesh Ambani raised over $ 10 billion for his growing technology company and did so in just four weeks.
Ambani said in a statement that the investment will enable his company to leverage “KKR’s global platform, industry knowledge and operational skills to further grow Jio.”
Jio is part of the billionaire’s sprawling conglomerate Reliance Industries. Includes Reliance Jio, India’s largest mobile network with over 388 million subscribers. Jio also has an app ecosystem, which offers those millions of mobile device users everything from online shopping to digital payments to video streaming.
Henry Kravis, co-founder and co-CEO of KKR, called Ambani’s momentum “impressive”.
“Few companies have the potential to transform a country’s digital ecosystem in the way Jio Platforms is doing in India and potentially worldwide,” Kravis said in a press release.
The billions raised in recent weeks will be used to fuel this ambition, in addition to repaying the ballooning debt at Jio’s parent company. The oil and energy industry, which forms an important part of Reliance’s business, has been severely dented by the coronavirus pandemic. Global oil demand has collapsed due to sharp falls in transportation, industrial and commercial activities.
Ambani said during a shareholders’ meeting last year that he wanted Reliance Industries to become a “zero net debt company” by March 2021. As of March 2020, Reliance had approximately $ 44 billion in debt on its books.
Last month, Reliance Industries said it is ahead of schedule and will reach its zero debt target later this year.
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