Amazon Infuses $310 Mn In India Business After Bezos’ $1 Bn Promise

After Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos recently announced $1 Bn investments for India, its Indian entity has now received fresh funds from two different subsidiaries of the company.

According to the Ministry of Corporate filings accessed by Inc42, Amazon’s Indian entity Amazon Seller Services Private Limited has raised INR 2208 Cr ($310 Mn) from Singapore-based Amazon Corporate Holdings Private Limited Company and Mauritius-based Amazon.com Incs Limited.

As part of this transaction, Amazon Corporate Holdings Private Limited Company and Amazon.com. Incs Limited received 220 Cr and 1,02,021 shares, respectively. The face value of each share stood at INR 10 for this deal. This development was first reported by Paper.vc.

Last month, Bezos had announced that Amazon is all set to invest $1 Bn in India to support small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). While speaking on the sidelines of the Amazon Smbhav event, Bezos had said that the investment will digitise Indian SMBs and will help them to export goods valuing over $10 Bn worldwide by 2025. And now with this investment, Amazon will look to digitise SMBs in the country.

Prior to this, Amazon had invested INR 1355 Cr and INR 360 Cr in Amazon Wholesale and Amazon Pay, respectively in January 2020. Amazon India uses its wholesale unit as a distribution channel that sources products from brands directly and then supplies these to third-party vendors to sell on their online marketplaces.

During his India visit, Bezos has also announced that the company is looking to increase the electric vehicle fleet and developing its delivery facility in India. In a bid to reduce carbon emission, Amazon had said that it is looking to include 10K EVs for its delivery facility by 2025.

These electric vehicles are in addition to the company’s global commitment of one lakh electric vehicle fleet by 2030, which was announced in September 2019 as part of Climate Pledge signed by Amazon.

Bezos had also announced that Amazon has been partnering with thousands of kirana stores across the country, which will act as delivery points. Under its ‘I Have Space’ programme, Amazon has been partnering with kirana stores since 2011.