Amazon.com, Inc. has invested about ₹2,310 crore into Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd, its marketplace unit in India, according to filings with the corporate affairs ministry accessed by Mint.
The fresh fund infusion is expected to push efforts of the US e-commerce giant to grow its seller network in India, where a three-month-long strict lockdown aimed at curbing COVID-19 has severely disrupted businesses.
The investment has been made through Amazon Corporate Holdings Pvt. Ltd, a Singapore entity, and Amazon.com, and it was approved by the board of Amazon Seller Services at a meeting on 25 June.
An Amazon India spokesperson declined to comment on the funding.
This is the second investment by Amazon in the Indian marketplace this year. In January, the company infused over ₹2,500 crore into Amazon Seller Services and Amazon Data Services India, Mint had reported.
Amazon Seller Services narrowed its loss 9.5% year-on-year to ₹5,685 crore for fiscal year 2018-19—the latest available data. Revenues surged 55% to ₹7,778 crore in 2018-19, according to PTI.
Earlier this year, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledged $1 billion in new investments to help take small Indian businesses online, as he pulled out all the stops to woo local merchants, and the government amid regulatory scrutiny and protests by traders.
The investments, said Bezos, will touch as many as 10 million small and medium businesses, including manufacturers, resellers, local offline shops and brands.
More than 600,000 sellers are currently listed on the Amazon marketplace.
In April, the online retailer also said it will invest ₹10 crore in ramping up a pilot programme that saw Amazon Seller Services reach out to 5,000 local stores selling electronics, apparel, toys, furniture, grocery, home furnishings, to list on its platform as the company continues to expand its range of sellers and products.
Amazon has expanded its work with India’s small business owners, manufacturers and suppliers as it tries to rapidly draw more sellers and partners into its fold to grow its share in the country’s retail market.
Meanwhile, large Indian e-commerce firms have been stepping up to provide increased support to their seller ecosystem, to ensure business continuity, after the lockdowns heavily impacted the operations of small and medium-sized businesses.
In India, Amazon competes with Walmart-owned Flipkart, which has also been ramping up its seller network.
With the gradual unlocking of businesses, online retail is slowly gaining momentum when physical distancing norms have made offline retail a challenge.
In May, Amazon said that its India operations were the worst-affected across all its operations worldwide by the pandemic as the Indian government ordered the company to halt the sales of almost all items but groceries during the lockdown that was first imposed on 25 March.
