Ambani’s Reliance to enter a partnership with Google and Facebook to seek business payments license in India

Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, and his company Reliance Industries Ltd is all set to seek a license for India’s digital payment business along with investors Facebook Inc and Google.

Reliance, India’s largest company according to the market value is teaming up with Google, Facebook, and also India grown technology service provider, Infibeam Avenues Ltd. The collaboration is applying for a license from the Reserve Bank of India.

The people with close knowledge of the development said that the consortium is currently in process of developing a plan in detail. 

Representatives from Reliance and Infibeam have declined to comment on the agreement “citing confidentiality agreements”. Among other applicants for the deal are consortiums led by Tata Group and another one led by Amazon Inc. 

The Reserve Bank of India has called in for all the applicants who seek to apply for a license of digital payment space in India by March 31. All the proposals would then be studied over the next six months. 

Ambani’s interest in entering the digital payment sector and set up a platform for the same underscores his vision of setting up Reliance as a pioneer towards consumer businesses in telecom, retail and e-commerce. This vision received $27 billion in investment from global investors. 

According to Credit Suisse Group AG, the Indian digital payments market is estimated to reach the milestone of $1 trillion by 2023. Ambani’s firm, Reliance Industries, if receives the license, will be set to compete against the state-run National Payments Corp. of India for its place in the market, which gained a hike during the pandemic. With imposed lockdowns during a pandemic, the people were forced to stay at home leading to a boost in the digital payment sector.