Amazon pours $417 mn more in India, one of its last growth frontiers after China exit

E-tailer Amazon has made a fresh capital infusion in its India marketplace of Rs 2,900 crore ($417.5 million at current exchange rate), almost six months after it had last invested Rs 2,200 crore in December.  

Email queries to Amazon did not get any response till the time of publishing this report.

The India investment, made on 4 June going by filings with the companies’ registrar, comes two months after Amazon said it will close its marketplace in China – a sign of defeat in the face of Chinese online shopping giants.

For Amazon, India is now one of the last frontiers of growth in emerging economies across the globe.

After Walmart bought Flipkart last year in May, Amazon now faces a more formidable and deep-pocketed rival in India.

In India, Amazon has been making startup investments, acquiring firms, setting up multiple subsidiaries for payments, logistics, wholesale, food, retail and online grocery, to expand its operations.

Amazon has also seen changes in the country’s policy in December, which barred e-commerce players from selling products through entities in which they own a stake.

Amazon India fell deeper into loss for the financial year ended March 2018 although its revenue rose at brisk pace.

The company’s standalone net loss widened to Rs 6,287 crore for 2017-18 from Rs 4,830.6 crore the year before.