The search engine firm’s funding commitment will include a $700m equity investment in Airtel for a stake of 1.28% in the latter
Airtel secures an investment of up to $1bn from Google. (Credit: Scott Roy Atwood/Wikipedia.org)
Google has committed to invest up to $1bn in partnering Bharti Airtel with an aim to expedite the growth of the digital ecosystem in India.
The investment over the course of the next five years will be made via the $10bn Google for India Digitization Fund, which was announced by the internet major in July 2020.
According to Airtel, the long-term, multi-year agreement will see the two firms work towards bringing best-in-class end-to-end products to cater to customer requirements and offer quality customer experience. Besides, the partnership will aim to bring their know-how to solve problems of access, affordability, as well as digital inclusion.
Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said: “Airtel and Google share the vision to grow India’s digital dividend through innovative products. With our future ready network, digital platforms, last mile distribution and payments ecosystem, we look forward to working closely with Google to increase the depth and breadth of India’s digital ecosystem.”
Google’s funding commitment will include a $700m equity investment in Airtel at a price of INR734 ($9.83) per share for a stake of 1.28% in the latter.
The search engine firm will invest an additional amount of up to $300m in the Indian communications solutions providers for implementing commercial agreements. These include investments to scale Airtel’s offerings that cover a variety of devices to consumers and other offerings aimed at speeding up access and digital inclusion across the Indian digital ecosystem.
The partners will also continue to pursue further opportunities to reduce the barriers of buying a smartphone across a variety of price points by partnering with multiple device manufacturers.
Additionally, the duo with cutting-edge implementations plans to co-create India-specific network domain use cases for 5G and other standards.
The partners will also focus on shaping and expanding the cloud ecosystem in India to fast-track their digital transformation journeys.
Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said: “Airtel is a leading pioneer shaping India’s digital future, and we are proud to partner on a shared vision for expanding connectivity and ensuring equitable access to the Internet for more Indians.
“Our commercial and equity investment in Airtel is a continuation of our Google for India Digitization Fund’s efforts to increase access to smartphones, enhance connectivity to support new business models, and help companies on their digital transformation journey.”
The closing of the deal will be subject to the required regulatory approvals.