Reliance Jio to fund start-ups, sets aside Rs 5,000 crore
- Mukesh Ambani said that Reliance Jio has set up a Rs 5,000 crore venture capital fund
- To build platforms for young Indians who want to create start-ups
FollowReliance Jio has set up a Rs 5,000 crore venture capital fund to help young entrepreneurs in the country build their business. Speaking at Reliance Industries' 42nd annual general meeting, chairman Mukesh Ambani said Reliance Jio's aim is to build a platform for young Indians who want to create "businesses of the future".
"Reliance Jio Digital India Startup Fund sets aside Rs 5,000 crore of venture capital to be invested over the next five years to encourage young entrepreneurs to build their businesses ground up in India," Ambani said.
He added the telecom unit plans to partner thousands of Indian entrepreneurs "whose digital ventures can bloom in the grounds that Jio is preparing". "... we have created a Reliance Jio Digital India Startup Fund and are also working to create digital entrepreneurship hubs in key cities and towns in India.
Our aim is to build a platform for young Indians who want to create businesses of the future," he said."In the coming months, we also plan to introduce apps
around education, health, rural livelihood, agriculture and many more categories because we truly believe it is time for digital life to reach the remotest corners of India," he added.
Reliance Jio, which will start rolling out a fibre-to-home wireline network in select cities, is also looking at extending its optical fibre network to enterprise locations.
"We intend to provide multi-gigabit per second enterprise-grade wireline data connections that are on par with those in the developed world. Jio is also partnering with some of the leading digital and Internet players in the world," Ambani said.
He added that together with Jio, these partners are keen to showcase the full power and range of their offerings to Indian customers. "In many cases, we are working jointly to create first-of-its-kind solutions that are unique to the Indian
market," he added. Ambani, India's richest man, said an exciting new area is eCommerce, where Jio is working closely with Reliance Retail.
