Jio to develop an entry-level affordable smartphone in partnership with Google

Within days of announcing a $10 billion digitisation fund for India, Search and Internet giant Google has announced a $4.5 billion (INR 33,737 crore) investment in Reliance Ltd owned Jio Platforms in return for a 7.73% stake in the company.

The investment is pending regulatory approvals in India, the company said in a post.

The Fund is aimed at accelerating India’s digital economy over the next five to seven years through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments.


The two companies will also jointly develop an entry-level affordable smartphone with optimizations to the Android operating system and the Play Store. It will target 350 million people who are currently using a 2G phone and can upgrade to a smartphone, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance said while announcing the partnership at the company's AGM.

"It’s been amazing to see the changes in technology and network plans that have enabled more than half a billion Indians to get online. At the same time, the majority of people in India still don’t have access to the internet, and fewer still own a smartphone—so there’s much more work ahead," Google said in a post.

In an interview to ET on Monday, Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Alphabet which owns Google said that the company will be interested in firms which can build for India, can scale it up quickly and also diversify in local languages.

"India has local talent, access to a large market, strong entrepreneurial and venture capital foundation to see this through. As a company, we are committed to it. We are trying to develop apps in India. We want to invest in companies that are doing that. We are excited by that vision and want to help play a small role in accelerating that trend," Pichai had said.