To maintain its sovereignty in the e-commerce business in India, Amazon has injected $306 million in Amazon Seller Services, its Indian arm. This investment was made by Seattle-headquartered Amazon Inc in collaboration with its Singapore based auxiliary organization, Amazon Corporate Holdings.
With this investment, the total amount raised by Amazon Seller Services has escalated to a whopping $1.3 billion for FY18. Amazon is specifically looking to use the investment for improving their technology and infrastructure in the country.
The recent funding just comes a few months after it invested around $250 million in its Indian arm in October 2017. It has also lifted its authorized shared capital to a colossal $4.7 billion.
Amazon Seller Services is among the largest e-commerce networks in India. It has over 250,000 registered sellers on its platform.
In 2015, Jeff Bezos committed to investing $5 billion in the Indian market and this investment is making this goal seem achievable. Amazon Seller Services, with an authorized capital of $4.7 billion(Rs 31,000 crore) is among the largest in India, just behind the Mukesh Ambani led telecommunication giant Reliance Jio which has a mammoth capital infusion of around Rs. 61,000 crore. Amazon’s capital is way ahead of some well-funded ventures in India like Vodafone Mobile, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, Tata Teleservices and L&T Metro Rail.
Since its inception in June 2013, Amazon has infused over $3 billion in Amazon Seller Services. In the Republic Day sale clash, Amazon emerged as a clear winner and beat the domestic rival Flipkart by a significant margin. Amazon’s Republic Day sale was from 20th January to 24th January with a 12-hour early access to its Prime members. Flipkart’s sale was from 21st January to 23rd January.
The latest funding is the fourth investment made by US-based Amazon in its Indian arm.