By P.R. Venkat

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund has agreed to invest 113.67 billion rupees ($1.49 billion) in Jio Platforms, joining the list of big multinational firms seeking a pie in the Indian telecommunications giant.

The investment will give PIF an equity stake of 2.32% giving Jio an equity value of INR4.91 trillion, Jio owner Reliance Industries said Thursday.

In the past several weeks, Jio has raised INR115.69 billion from leading technology and private equity firms. These investors include Facebook Inc., Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, KKR & Co. and General Atlantic LLC.

This month alone, two middle eastern firms--state-owned Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and sovereign investor Mubadala Investment Co. agreed to invest INR56.84 billion and INR90.90 billion respectively for a minority stake in Jio.

Reliance has spent more than $30 billion building upstart mobile operator Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., which is part of Jio Platforms. Reliance said it is aiming for it to be net debt free by next year.

Jio has attracted more than 388 million subscribers with inexpensive mobile-data plans and is now moving into e-commerce, as legions of people in the country of 1.3 billion begin transacting online for the first time.

"We believe that the potential of the Indian digital economy is very exciting and that Jio Platforms provides us with an excellent opportunity to gain access to that growth," said Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Governor of PIF.

Reliance, which is controlled by India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, has investments spanning across media, retail and natural resources. 



  Write to P.R. Venkat at venkat.pr@wsj.com