Amazon acquires Noida-based payment gateway EMVANTAGE

E-commerce bellwether Amazon.com Inc has agreed to acquire Noida-based online payment solutions provider EMVANTAGE Payments Pvt Ltd for an undisclosed amount.

As part of the acquisition, EMVANTAGE's employees will join Amazon's payments team to develop solutions tailored for the Indian market, Amazon said in a press statement.

"EMVANTAGE is a valuable addition to our team as we accelerate our payment offerings, ensuring the best in class online payment experience anywhere that customers shop with us," said Srinivas Rao, director of Amazon Payments India.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016. EMVANTAGE provides an online payment gateway, besides solutions around mobile payments and pre-paid card solutions.

Amazon had recently struck a deal to buy a 26 per cent stake in Westland Ltd, a subsidiary of Tata Group's retail firm Trent Ltd and best known as the publisher of Indian authors including novelists Amish Tripathi and Ashwin Sanghi.

The NASDAQ-listed company also crossed the $100 billion mark in annual sales for the first time in its 20-year history during the year ended December 31, 2015.

In India, Amazon.in was the top e-commerce site throughout the fourth quarter, including the busy Diwali shopping season, according to analytics firm comScore. According to App Annie that provides app market data, in the 12 months till October 2015, Amazon.in's app downloads grew over 3,200 per cent.

Amazon's India e-tail platform saw its seller base grow 250 per cent. Its storage and fulfilment capacity in India saw a three-fold rise with 5 million cubic feet of storage capacity and 21 fulfillment centres, respectively.

In July last year, Jeff Bezos committed an additional $5 billion investment into India. This was in addition to the $2 billion committed earlier.

Amazon competes with Flipkart, Snapdeal and other online majors for supremacy in India's horizontal e-commerce space.

Mobile payment gateways

Commonly used payment gateways in India include Citrus, CCAvenue, Ibibo Group's PayU, One97's Paytm Wallet, Zaakpay and PayPal.

Many mobile payment solutions and technology startups in India raised funding last year.

In December 2015, Hyderabad-based payment solutions provider Paynear Solutions Pvt Ltd had raised $2.5 million in pre-Series A funding from serial investor Mitesh Majithia.