Jio Platforms, the digital services arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), on Friday said it will invest $15 million in Silicon Valley-based Two Platforms (Two) as it bets big on growth areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and metaverse. Jio Platforms will acquire a 25 per cent stake in the deep-tech startup.

Two Platforms is an artificial reality company with focus on building interactive and immersional AI (artificial intelligence) experiences.

It was founded by Pranav Mistry, former Samsung technology and advanced research president & CEO.

After text and voice, Two Platforms believes that the next chapter of AI is visual and interactive. Its artificial reality platform enables real-time AI voice and video calls, digital humans, immersive spaces and lifelike gaming.

The company plans to bring its interactive AI technologies first to consumer applications, followed by entertainment and gaming as well as enterprise solutions, including for retail, services, education, health and wellness.

“We are impressed with the strong experience and capabilities of the founding team at Two in the areas of AI/ML, AR, metaverse and Web 3.0. We look forward to working together with Two to help expedite development of new products in the areas of interactive AI, immersive gaming and metaverse,” Jio director Akash Ambani said while commenting on the investment.

The RIL share on Friday ended marginally lower at Rs 2,331.80 — a drop of Rs 20.90 over the last close.

During the third quarter ended December 31, 2021, gross revenues of Jio Platforms rose to Rs 24,176 crore from Rs 22,858 crore during the same period last year — a growth of around 14 per cent.

The arm which represents the entire digital services business saw its net profit at Rs 3,795 crore against Rs 3,486 crore in the previous year quarter — a rise of almost 9 per cent.
Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortisation (EBITDA) rose to Rs 10,008 crore.