Amazon invests Rs 11,400 cr in India in FY20

In January this year, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had announced $1 billion (over Rs 7,000 crore) investment in India to help bring small and medium businesses online.

New Delhi: US e-commerce giant Amazon has pumped in over Rs 11,400 crore (about $1.5 billion) during FY2019-20 across its marketplace, payments and wholesale business units in India to bolster its position in the country’s burgeoning digital commerce market.

The investments have been made even though most of the Amazon’s business units in India registered losses during the fiscal. Data analysis from regulatory filings by various Amazon entities showed that Amazon Seller Services, Amazon Wholesale (India), Amazon Pay (India) and Amazon Transportation Services saw their losses adding up to Rs 7,899 crore in FY20 as against a loss of Rs 7,014.5 crore in the preceding fiscal.

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In January this year, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had announced $1 billion (over Rs 7,000 crore) investment in India to help bring small and medium businesses online. Previously, the online retail giant had committed $5.5 billion investments in India, one of Amazon’s most important markets outside of the US and a key growth driver.

Amazon, which has been locked in a bruising battle for market leadership with Walmart-owned Flipkart, also faces competition from Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries that has been bolstering its position in the country’s retail segment. The competition is set to intensify further as Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) has raised Rs 47,265 crore by selling 10.09 per cent stake, giving it more firepower to compete against the global giant.

Interestingly, Amazon – which has invested in the unlisted Future Coupons Ltd – had dragged Future group to arbitration at Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) after the indebted Kishore Biyani group firm signed a pact to sell retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing units to Reliance in August this year.

On the funding front, Amazon Seller Services – the e-commerce marketplace unit in India – was the biggest beneficiary of the fund infusion, receiving Rs 8,408 crore in three tranches. The unit saw revenue from operations rising over 42 per cent to Rs 10,847.6 crore in FY20 over the preceding fiscal.