Akash Ambani is positioning Jio Platforms to capture a significant share of India’s projected $1.4 trillion digital economy by FY31, highlighting the company’s technology capabilities, nationwide 5G network and infrastructure investments as it prepares for what could become India’s largest-ever initial public offering (IPO).
We see $1.4 trillion digital economy by FY31. The end-to-end stack gives us the ability to capture a large market share for thisAKASH AMBANI AT JIO IPO PRESS CONFERENCE
The managing director of Jio Platforms Limited outlined the company’s growth strategy on Thursday, pointing to its scale and technology investments as it looks to expand across consumer and enterprise services. “The mission of Jio is to connect every single home, every single Indian and every single enterprise,” he said.
Akash said Jio had built a substantial position in India’s digital ecosystem in just 10 years, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of ₹76,000 crore. The company carries 60% of India’s data traffic, he added.
He also highlighted the pace of Jio’s 5G expansion, saying the company had rolled out the technology in 19 months and now had the world’s largest 5G base outside China. Average monthly data consumption stands at 43.7 gigabytes per customer, he said.
Jio’s infrastructure and technology investments, Akash added, would be difficult for competitors to replicate. The company has filed 7,200 patents and is the only Indian company among the global top 20 in this category, according to his remarks.
Jio Platforms’ IPO is scheduled to open for subscription on October 21 and close on October 23, with bidding for anchor investors set to take place on October 19. The company has fixed the price band at ₹1,065-₹1,119 per equity share.
Focus shifts beyond data pricing
During the question-and-answer session, Akash was asked about the possibility of further tariff increases. He said Jio wanted to focus on offering more services to customers rather than competing solely on the price of data.
Want to deliver more services to our users and price for that rather than just play a GB pricing gameAKASH AMBANI
Akash identified three key growth engines for the company: mobility, homes, and enterprise and international services. He said the enterprise digital services market that Jio can address is worth $56 billion.
On international expansion, he said Jio’s proprietary end-to-end technology could help it partner with global telecom operators and become a managed services provider. “Our infrastructure footprint is hard to replicate,” he said.
IPO attracts institutional interest
The IPO marketing exercise has included extensive engagement with investors globally. Akash reportedly held more than 50 one-on-one meetings with institutional investors as part of the process.
Uday Kotak, founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank, said there was significant institutional interest in Jio. He also said the IPO had been priced attractively for investors in terms of potential returns, following feedback from investors and discussions around the company’s scale, growth prospects and existing capital expenditure.
Isha Ambani recalls how Jio began
Isha Ambani, who spoke after Kotak, traced Jio’s origins to a problem she and her brother Akash encountered when they returned from the United States around 2009-10.
“Story of how Jio was born — it was 2009-2010 when Akash and I were back from the States and trying to do our assignments and internet failed us,” she said, recalling the experience that helped shape the idea behind Jio.
She said Reliance’s approach to building businesses rested on a long-term perspective, achieving the scale needed to change an industry’s underlying economics, and technology. Financial discipline, she added, remained central to the group’s approach.
“Financial prudence is embedded in our DNA,” Isha said, reiterating the group’s long-term focus. She also invoked Reliance’s longstanding motto: “‘Growth is life’.”
Isha noted that Reliance went public in 1977 and had delivered a compound annual shareholder return of 29% since then, according to her remarks.
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