The Indian tech giant Reliance Jio Platforms has raised around $15.2 billion in the past nine weeks. Now, the company stated that the $1.5 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s PIF was the end of the company’s funding round.
Mukesh Ambani, the CEO of Reliance Industries, stated that Reliance Retail and Jio Platforms had obtained interest from different strategic and financial investors. However, he will lead the global partners in the next few quarters.
Ambani also stated that he is going to list both Reliance Retail and Jio Platforms in the next five years. “With these initiatives, I believe that the company will have the strongest track record in the world.”
Today’s funding marks the biggest fundraising cycle for the previous three months. Moreover, Reliance Jio announced in April that it had raised around $5.7 billion from Facebook.
In the weeks since that time, the company has raised around $9.5 billion from several high profile investors, like General Atlantic and Silver Lake.
The raised capital during this global pandemic accounts for half of the investments into the telecom companies this year. Ambani announced that, by raising $15.2 billion, Reliance Jio had raised more than the entire Indian startup ecosystem.
On Friday, Ambani confirmed market speculation regarding why Reliance Jio Platforms was raising money. Ambani stated that the capital helped him repay the debt of $21 billion. The oil-to retail giant was debt free in 2012; however, now it is net debt-free.
Last August, Ambani promised the shareholders that Reliance Industries, India’s popular fund, would repay the debt by 2021.
Ambani stated, “I am quite happy that our company is making progress. We have been successful in making the net debt of Reliance zero before the 31st March schedule.”
Reliance Industries is continuously making big moves in the tech industry. Let’s wait and see whether the company succeeds in its different ventures.
