An American private equity and venture capital firm focused on financing and forwarding software, Vista Equity Partners have proposed to invest Rs11,367 crore in Jio Platforms. This is an acquisition deal and will the firm will take up 2.32 per cent stake. It is the first sizeable investment to be made Vista in any Indian based company. On the other hand, this will be the third deal which Jio is closing in a span of two weeks, after signing deals with Facebook and Silver Lake.

This investment values Jio Platforms at an equity value of Rs 4.91 lakh crore and an enterprise value of Rs 5.16 lakh crore. And with this deal, Jio Platforms is set to net a combined Rs 60,596 crore for the unit of Reliance Industries which comprises mainly its telecom business under Reliance Jio Infocomm, which is the largest in the country with over 388 million subscribers.

Reliance’s other digital properties and investments such as Jio Cinema, Jio Saavn and Haaptik are housed under Jio Platforms. The transaction is subjected to regulatory and other customary approvals.

RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani said in the statement, “Like our other partners, Vista also shares with us the same vision of continuing to grow and transform the Indian digital ecosystem for the benefit of all Indians. They believe in the transformative power of technology to be the key to an even better future for everyone. In Robert and Brian, whose family hails from Gujarat, I found two outstanding global technology leaders who believe in India and the transformative potential of a Digital Indian Society. We are excited to leverage the professional expertise and multi-level support that Vista has been offering to its investments globally for the benefit of Jio.”

With this deal Vista will become the largest investor in Jio Platforms after RIL and Facebook. It is the world’s largest exclusively tech-focused private equity fund, and has over $57 billion in capital commitments and 20 years of investments exclusively in enterprise software and technology companies.

Referring to the event, Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista stated, “PE firm believes in the potential of the digital society that Jio is building for India. “We are thrilled to join Jio Platforms to deliver exponential growth in connectivity across India, providing modern consumer, small business and enterprise software to fuel the future of one of the world’s fastest growing digital economies.”

Hence this investment will strengthen Jio’s continuing attraction among global investors for its deep understanding of the Indian markets, the rapid digitisation opportunity post-Covid and its capabilities to bring cutting-edge technologies and tools such as AI, Blockchain, AR/VR, Big data into play for all Indians.