Amazon infuses $310 mn in Indian unit Amazon Seller Services

Seattle headquartered ecommerce major Amazon, along with Singapore-based Amazon Corporate Holdings, has infused nearly $310 million through an equity share issue in its Indian unit Amazon Seller Services.

The Indian subsidiary issued 220.8 crore shares to its parent entities at Rs 10 a share, showed its latest regulatory filings.

The investment comes little over a fortnight after Amazon chief Jeff Bezos announced $1 billion investment outlay for local operations in India. Through the investment, Amazon plans to increase the number of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) onboarded on its platform to one crore from the current 5.5 lakh sellers. 

The investment is also expected to create employment for around one crore Indians.

Amazon Seller Services provides marketplace services, advertisement services and marketing support services to sellers registered on its platform. The company also provides training to sellers onboarded on its Seller Central and Amazon Marketplace.    

In the financial year 2018-19, Amazon infused merely $391 million (Rs 3,140 crore) in Amazon Seller Services, lower by a third compared to $1.3 billion (Rs 9,450 crore) in the previous year, separate flings show. As of October 2019, it received $4.25 billion in overall internal funding since Amazon’s India entry in 2012, multiple media reports said. 

Buoyed by past investments, in FY19, Amazon Seller Services reported a 54% growth in its revenues to Rs 7,593 crore. It also narrowed losses to Rs 5,685 crore against Rs 6287 crore in the previous year. 

Just a day ahead of Bezos’ visit to India, Amazon infused $242 million into two separate Indian subsidiaries -- digital payments vertical Amazon Pay received $191 million, while Amazon Wholesale got the rest.

Bezos’ visit to India also coincided with the initiation of an investigation by antitrust regulator Competition Commission of India into the alleged predatory business practices employed by Amazon and Walmart-owned ecommerce firm Flipkart.

In January, Amazon said that it would include 10,000 electric vehicles (EVs) in its delivery fleet as a part of the climate change pledge it took in September 2019. The number of EVs in its pool of vehicles is expected to rise to 1,00,000 by 2030.

Recently, Amazon detailed its global earnings for the final quarter of FY20. In Q4, Amazon’s global sales grew 21% to $87.4 billion, $1 billion higher than expectations, on account of a healthy holiday season. Its net income also grew to $3.3 billion from $3 billion in the previous year.