Firming up its presence in the digital music space, Reliance Industries (RIL) has entered into an agreement to combine its music service JioMusic with New York-based music over-the-top (OTT) platform Saavn to create India's largest music platform. The combined entity will be valued at more than $1 billion.

In addition, the company led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani RIL will acquire a partial stake in Saavn for $104 million. RIL will also invest up to rupee equivalent of $100 million, out of which $20 million will be invested upfront, for growth and expansion of the joint platform. “This will help it emerge as the largest music streaming service in the world,” RIL said in a statement, adding that post the deal JioMusic’s implied valuation is at $670 million. The move is being seen as part of Reliance’s strategy to offer more content on its digital platform.

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.

“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. We are delighted to announce this partnership with Saavn, and believe that their highly experienced management team will be instrumental in expanding Jio-Saavn to an extensive user base, thereby strengthening our leadership position in the Indian streaming market,” said Akash Ambani, Director, Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio).

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