Amazon turns focus to digital payments, invests Rs 130 crore

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Jul 13, 2017

Global e-commerce firm Amazon has turned its focus now on India’s booming digital payments market and invested Rs 130 crore ($20.2 million) to boost its payments unit Amazon Pay. The company has pumped Rs 130 crore into its payments entity, Amazon Pay India, according to regulatory filings made with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

The Seattle based firm is suddenly splashing more cash on the Indian market with investments across all it business operations. Amazon had recently invested another Rs 1,680 crore ($260 million) in its Indian e-commerce unit and Rs 341 crore ($56 million) in Amazon Wholesale India, the wholesale B2B arm of the company in India.
 
Amazon Pay is a relatively new entrant into India’s digital payments space which is already dominated by companies likes Paytm, Freecharge and others. Digital payment companies witnessed a huge surge post November’s demonetisation move which lead to a shortage of cash in the market forcing customers to take the digital route.

Amazon Pay missed out to cash in on the demonetisation effect as it entered India in April after the firm got an approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
 
Amazon is now giving a push to its payments unit by offering additional discounts and cashback offers for payments via its digital wallet.
 
"We remain committed to our India business with a long-term perspective to make e-commerce a habit for Indian customers and to invest in the necessary technology and infrastructure to grow the entire ecosystem," Amazon spokesperson was quoted as saying by the Economic Times.

It looks like now all leading e-commerce firms Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and Paytm are looking to further strengthen their payments unit before new players like Hike and soon to enter WhatsApp take over.