Amazon, the Seattle based ecommerce giant, reportedly invested close to Rs. 29,000 crores into its Indian business. According to filings with the Registrar of Companies (ROC,) this capital will be infused into Amazon Seller Services, which runs Amazon’s Indian ecommerce business.
This round of investments comes as an extension of the company’s commitment to invest $5 billion in India to expand their business in the country. In the current fiscal year itself, Amazon has pumped about $ 1 billion into Amazon Seller Service. The current investment is the single biggest infusion of capital by Amazon in the Indian marketplace during a year.
Amazon invested Rs. 1,680 crores in India in June this year and further invested Rs. 1,620 crores in September. Amazon Seller Service also passed a resolution to increase the authorized share capital from Rs. 16,000 crores to Rs. 31,000 crores to grow their entire ecosystem. Amazon’s founder and CEO Jeff Bezos also promised to invest $ 3 billion in India in 2016 after making an initial commitment of $ 2 billion. Amazon, with this investment, surpassed the Rs. 2,010 crores investment in their Indian arm in 2016 – 2917. The company is also nearing the overall capital infusion of Rs. 7,463 crores the company made during 2015 – 2016. At present, the company is locked in a fierce battle with homegrown ecommerce startup Flipkart, which is backed by SoftBank.
Speaking about the current round of capital infusion, Amazon India said in a statement, “As India’s largest and fastest growing ecommerce player and with a long term commitment to make ecommerce a habit for Indian customers, we continue to invest in the necessary technology and infrastructure to grow the entire ecosystem.”
Although the company reported a huge international loss of $ 724 million in the June quarter, Amazon still bets heavily on the Indian market. In an interview, Chief Financial Officer of Amazon, Brian T. Olsavsky said, “It is international expansion and primarily in India where we’re continuing to add benefits. We had the first Prime Day sale there this year, Prime Music, Amazon Business are (sic) also expanding in India. So, a lot of positive momentum and investment going on in India, we are very pleased with that.”