Facebook Inc. today made a $5.7 billion investment in Jio Platforms Ltd. in return for a 9.99% stake, valuing the subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Inc. at nearly $66 billion.

Jio Platforms operates a variety of businesses, key among them Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., the largest mobile network in India with 388 million customers.

Facebook investing in a telco is certainly something new for the social networking giant, but the interest isn’t so much in the company’s 4G network than the company’s customers and its services. Under the deal, Facebook will work with Jio to integrate Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service with JioMart, Jio’s grocery delivery service among other initiatives.

“India is in the midst of one of the most dynamic social and economic transformations the world has ever seen, driven by the rapid adoption of digital technologies,” Facebook said a statement. “In just the past five years, more than 560 million people in India have gained access to the internet. Our goal is to enable new opportunities for businesses of all sizes, but especially for the more than 60 million small businesses across India.”

Although WhatsApp is already the most popular messaging app in the world, the deal locks it in as the app of choice by Jio. CNBC reported that the motivation is not simply user numbers, since Facebook is gearing up to launch a payments feature for WhatsApp in India. That payment service will be linked into JioMart, giving the service an immediate potential customer base in the hundreds of millions at launch.

The deal also providers political advantages for Facebook. Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani is said to be a close ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The investment is Facebook’s biggest in a single company since it acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion in February 2014. Whether this will be the start of a new wave of investments for Facebook is yet to be seen. As of December 31, Facebook had cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities of $54.86 billion that it could potentially access for further acquisitions and investments should it so desire.

The initial reaction to the deal from investors was positive. Facebook shares rose 2.6% in after-hours trading following a down day for nearly the entire stock market.

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