Reliance integrates Saavn and Jio Music to create $1bn entity

Reliance Industries Limited (“RIL”) today announced the integration of Saavn with its digital music service, JioMusic. This combined entity is now valued at over US$1 billion, with JioMusic’s implied valuation at US$ 670 million.

“The investment and combination of our music assets with Saavn underlines our commitment to further boost the digital ecosystem and provide unlimited digital entertainment services to consumers over a strong uninterrupted network," said, Akash Ambani, Director, Reliance Jio.

The idea is to develop this property into a media platform of the future with global reach, cross-border original content, an independent artist marketplace, consolidated data and one of the largest mobile advertising mediums. The company will continue to operate the over-the-top media platform available on all app stores. The three co-founders of Saavn, Rishi Malhotra, Paramdeep Singh and Vinodh Bhat, will continue in their leadership roles and will drive growth of the combined entity.

Founded in 2007, Saavn is one of South Asia's leading digital music streaming services, transforming how people around the world access and experience music on a daily basis. While JioMusic has been India’s fastest growing music streaming app for over 60 consecutive weeks. JioMusic has sourced content from all the major Indian and international labels, with over 16 million HD songs across 20 languages.

Rishi Malhotra, Co-Founder and CEO at Saavn, said “Vin, Param and I always envisioned the company for the long term with an intense focus on products, data, and ground-breaking original content. Our alignment with Reliance enables us to create one of the largest, fastest-growing, and most capable media platforms in the world.”

Furthermore, Reliance will also invest upto Rupee equivalent of US$100 million, out of which Rupee equivalent of US$20 million will be invested upfront, for growth and expansion of the platform into one of the largest streaming services in the world. It is acquiring a partial stake from the existing shareholders of Saavn for US$104 million, while these shareholders retain their balance stake. The shareholder base of Saavn includes Tiger Global Management, Liberty Media and Bertelsmann among others.