Amazon Seller Services gets fresh fund infusion of Rs 915 crore

(Image: AP)

US-based e-commerce giant Amazon has infused Rs 915 crore fresh capital into one of its India units – Amazon Seller Services, according to regulatory documents. The fresh infusion is expected to provide more arsenal to Amazon in India to compete more aggressively against rivals like Walmart-owned Flipkart and Mukesh Ambani's JioMart.

Amazon Corporate Holdings and Amazon.com.inc have made a Rs 915 crore investment in the unit, as per documents filed with the corporate affairs ministry and accessed by business intelligence platform Tofler. The documents showed that 91,49,57,723 shares were allotted to Amazon Corporate Holdings, while 42,277 shares were given to Amazon.com.inc as part of the transaction.

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E-mails sent to Amazon India seeking comments on the fund infusion did not elicit a response. Amazon has been pumping billions of dollars into various operations like marketplace, wholesale and payments business as it looks to strengthen its position in the Indian market.

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

Last month, Amazon had also announced a USD 250 million (about Rs 1,873 crore) fund that will focus on digitising small and medium businesses and driving innovation in the areas of agri-tech and health-tech in India.