Reliance Industries’(RIL) Jio has established itself as the digital platform of choice for the country, building multiple services. Now the Mukesh Ambani-led oil- to-technology behemoth wants to create an ecosystem to help Indian startups grow faster, with both technology and financial support.
At RIL’s 43rd annual general meeting on July 15, Ambani offered to partner Indian startups that can help the country’s goal to make in India, for India and eventually for the whole world.
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“I believe there is no better partner for Indian startups than Jio,” the Reliance Chairman and Managing Director said at the company’s first virtual AGM.
Jio is set to extend support in technology and product development, helping startups with distribution, market access and even scale-up capital. The ultimate target is to create a knowledge ecosystem and help solve India’s problems and help Indian companies succeed in the global scale, Ambani said.
Reliance has been an active investor in the Indian startup ecosystem and has also acquired a clutch of small companies and integrated them into the Jio product suite.
Startups like Haptik, Saavn, Embibe, EasyGov have all been integrated into the Jio suite of services in the last few years.
Given the products offered by Jio, there are multiple benefits that startups can look for through a partnership.
Firstly, the financial heft of Jio is such that capital raising will not be a problem. Secondly, Jio, with its user base of more than 387 million, can emerge as a captive market for many startups to test and scale up products. Third, Jio can also help in digitising offline entrepreneurs, which can reduce the time taken by these businesses to move online from offline.
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