Amazon to invest Rs 225 crore in digital payments business in India

New Delhi: US-based online retail giant Amazon has invested an additional Rs 225 crore in its Indian digital payments unit Amazon Pay through two overseas entities, regulatory filings with business online platform Tofler showed .

India is one of Amazon's most important markets outside the United States and a key growth driver. It is understood that this is the first time this year that the company has injected a large amount of cash into Amazon Pay to explore India's booming digital payment market and compete for market leadership.

Amazon said it will continue to make long-term investments in India to enable Indian customers to enjoy the convenience of e-commerce and other digital products and services.

Amazon’s latest capital infusion is understood to be primarily a token investment through Amazon Corporate Holdings , the Singapore-based parent of all the U.S. tech giant’s e-commerce units in India , and Mauritius-based Amazon.com Inc.

Last year , the company pumped in just over Rs 2,000 crore into the business in two tranches, taking its total funds raised since 2016 to Rs 5,280 crore .

In October last year , Amazon also increased its authorised equity capital to Rs 16 billion from Rs 60 billion, a sign that the company is looking to infuse more capital into Amazon as it competes with the likes of Google Pay , PhonePe and Paytm .

Amazon Pay reported a 64% rise in revenue to Rs 1,370 crore in the year ended March 31, 2020, while losses widened to Rs 1,860.85 crore from Rs 1,160.80 crore in FY19, according to regulatory filings .

The latest infusion of Amazon Pay comes against the backdrop of strong growth in the digital payments ecosystem in 2020 , driven by the pandemic as consumers and small businesses opted for contactless payment methods during the pandemic.

Amazon

India

Digital Payments