Reliance Industries has opened the doors for startups in recent years, giving technological and financial assistance through a flurry of acquisitions in a variety of new age enterprises in all disciplines. In an AGM (43rd) speech in 2020, chairman Mukesh Ambani stated that there is “no better partner for Indian startups than Jio.” According to him, the oil-to-technology conglomerate wants to establish an ecosystem to assist Indian companies expand faster by providing both technology and financial support.
According to the Mukesh Ambani company’s 2021-22 annual report, investments have been made to improve Jio’s technology ecosystem. Jio has supported and partnered with new-age and existing platforms and their management teams across digital services, in addition to scaling up and building organically.
Reliance Industries and Jio’s Investment in Indian Startups
Jio Platforms (JPL) has invested US$ 15 million in Two Platforms Inc, an Artificial Reality firm focused on creating interactive and immersive AI experiences. The Altificial Reality technology from Two allows for real-time AI voice and video chats, artificial persons, immersive environments, and lifelike games.
JPL invested $ 200 million in Glance, a leading Al-driven lock-screen platform, for a —17% equity stake. Glance’s goal is to build the world’s largest lock screen live content and commerce platform. It has an agreement with Reliance Retail Ventures to include Glance’s lock screen platform into the JioPhone Next smartphone.
In 2019, Reliance Jio bought a majority stake in the conversational and virtual assistants or chatbot creator ‘Haptik’ in a deal worth Rs 700 crore, which included a Rs 470 crore investment for future expansion of the business over a five-year period. It was Reliance’s most significant acquisition in 2019.
The acquisition also allowed Times Internet, a subsidiary of the Times Group, to sell its majority interest. Reliance owns roughly 87 percent of the company. Haptik is one of the largest conversational AI platforms in the world.
Increasing its position in the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G networks
Reliance Jio Infocomm has purchased Radisys Corp, a Nasdaq-listed telecom solutions provider, for about $75 million (Rs 510 crore) in cash, with the goal of further advancing Jio’s global innovation and technology leadership in the areas of 5G, IoT, and open source architecture adoption.
In 2019, Reliance Industries paid Rs 141 crore for Hyderabad-based SaaS start-up NowFloats Technologies, with an 85 percent share. NowFloats enables small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to create a company website in minutes, complete with auto- SEO, responsive design, product catalogue, and payment method, as well as communicate with consumers via WhatsApp.
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