The investment arm of Qualcomm Inc, Qualcomm Ventures has agreed to invest Rs 730 crores for 0.15 stake in reliance jio platforms, the digital subsidiary of Reliance Industries announced. This is the 13th deal for Jio since it signed with Facebook in April
Qualcomm is one of the biggest wireless technology company, it is the third technology investor in Jio after Facebook and Intel. Reliance jio platforms now value at the equity of Rs 4.91 trillion and an enterprise value of Rs 5.16 trillion.
Qualcomm Ventures said that it will invest to acquire equity stake on a fully diluted basis. The company will help Jio to “roll out advanced 5G infrastructure and services for Indian customers.”
This deal with Qualcomm is the 13th investment in reliance jio platforms in the last 12 weeks. Reliance now sold a 25.24 percent stake in Jio and raised Rs 118,318.45 crore in total from all deals it signed.
Qualcomm is based in California that specialises in 3G, 4G, and 5G wireless technologies. Qualcomm products are used in mobile phones and other wireless devices. The Snapdragon system on chip( SoC) developed by Qualcomm is used by all top mobile makers.
The company’s technologies and products are used in other industries like automotive, computing, IoT. Qualcomm holds several patents globally and also in India they filled the most number of patents.
On April 22, Facebook-Jio deal of Rs 43,574 crore was announced in which Facebook bought a 9.99 percent stake. Later American private equity Silver Lake invested Rs 5,656 crore for a stake of 1.15 percent. Another American private equity Vista invested Rs 11,367 crore for a stake of 2.32 percent.
New deals continued for the last two months with global investors such as General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, Silver Lake, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority(ADIA), TPG Capital, L Catterton, PIF(Saudi Investment Fund), Intel and the latest Qualcomm.
Reliance Jio which competes with existing players like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone offered cut-rate for voice and data plans. In just four years, the company onboarded nearly 400 million subscribers, disrupting the whole telecommunication sector. Now Jio is the world’s second-largest internet market in such a short time.
Last year’s Indian start-up ecosystem raised Rs 1.10 crores, which is the best. Jio in its continuous funds raised is the highest by any company in the world. Reliance Jio Platforms has not yet raised any capital from Chinese investors.
“Qualcomm has been a valued partner for several years and we have a shared vision of connecting everything by building a robust and secure wireless and digital network and extending the benefits of digital connectivity to everyone in India,” said Ambani in a statement released.