Jio to raise $4.5 Bn from Google; announces Jio Glass and Jio TV+

Google is all set to invest Rs 33,737 crore ~ $4.5 billion in Jio platforms for 7.7% stake. After this, Jio will have $20 billion investment in 2020 against 33% stake in the company. 

Prior to Google, Reliance Jio has raised Rs 118,318.45 crore or $15.5 billion in total funding for 25.24% stake.

Google will join the likes of tech behemoths Facebook, Qualcomm, Intel,  and private equity firms including Vista Equity, General Atlantic, KKR, Silver Lake, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, among others, which have backed the Mukesh Ambani-led firm in its mega fundraising round.

Jio Platforms and Google have also entered into a commercial agreement to jointly develop an entry level affordable smartphone with optimizations to the Android operating system and the Play Store.

Announcing the development in its Annual General Meeting, Reliance has unveiled expansion plans for Jio that include Jio TV+ and Glass. While Jio TV+ bundles 12 OTT services including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Voot, Disney+Hotstar, Youtube, EROS Now, Jio Glass is a mixed reality gadget and can be connected to the phone. It weighs 75 gms, and already supports over 25 apps.

Reliance also said that it’s ready with homegrown 5G technology and it will start testing 5G once the bandwidth gets open. According to the company, its video conferencing app JioMeet aims to disrupt healthcare and education in India.

Jio TV+ seems to be a very well proposition for users who manage various subscriptions independently. The bundling of all leading OTT platforms will entice more users to switch to Jio TV+. Reliance also mentioned that Jio Mart has expanded to 200 cities but it hasn’t given any insight on its traction.

Earlier this week, the search giant said it’ll invest $10 billion in India within the next five to seven years to help accelerate the adoption of digital services in the country.