Amazon Pay raises $30 mn in funding from parent

Weeks after Amazon’s reported push to set up a New Umbrella Entity (NUE) with ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Visa, the payments entity of the ecommerce giant has raised Rs 225 crore ($30.9 million as per current exchange rates), marking its first fundraise of the year.  

Amazon Pay India raised the capital from parent entities Amazon Corporate Holdings in Singapore, which invested the majority share at Rs 224.9 crore, while Mauritius headquartered Amazon.com.incs Limited offered the rest, according to regulatory filings. 

The payment arm of Amazon in India had raised Rs 2055.03 crore across two tranches in 2020.  

While Amazon Pay reported a 64% rise in its total annual revenues for the financial year 2019-20 at Rs 1,370 crore, it also widened its losses for the year by 61%, mainly due to spends on advertising and promotions. The company, in its filings, said that the Covid-19 related lockdown impacted its ability to onboard new merchants and complete in-person KYC verifications for wallet users. 

The payments player, which opened up its wallet for UPI-based transactions in April 2019, has been spending heavily on offers and cashbacks to corner market share. The third party app-based UPI transaction segment is currently dominated by Walmart-backed PhonePe, SoftBank-backed Paytm and Google Pay. With WhatsApp Pay entering the fray, there has been an increase in competition.  

Over the years, Amazon Pay has added features such as utility and credit card bill payments, and travel, movie tickets, insurance and gold purchase options.