India is considered as one of the most competitive markets and Amazon is not looking to back down from its ambition to attain the prime spot in the e-commerce ecosystem. According to regulatory filings spotted with the Registrar of Companies, Amazon Wholesale received a hefty ₹100 crores (approx $15.5 million) tranche of investment to continue its efforts in the country.
This tranche into the company’s wholesale retail-focused arm, which caters to business-to-business (B2B) deals has been poured in by Amazon Corporate Holdings Singapore and Amazon.com, Mauritius. Amazon Wholesale also received similar tranches of investments, amounting to ₹115 crore (approx $17.25 million) and ₹160 crore (approx $24.8 million) in June and September respectively. This is surely part of CEO Jeff Bezos’ $5 billion commitment ($3 billion earlier last year and $2 billion beforehand) towards the development of its brand in the nation. The said development was first reported by ET.
The wholesale unit was set up way back in 2013 when Amazon first step foot into the country. It owns and runs AmazonBusiness, which currently serves small and medium-sized business (SMBs) in Bengaluru and Mangalore. It has listed products in categories such as office supplies, stationery, housekeeping supplies, kitchen, health, personal care, food, and beverages.
The said division also acts as a seller of exclusive products, including smartphones for Amazon India portal. It’s responsible for the distribution and marketing of some of the most prominent online-first brands such as Coolpad, Huawei, Honor, OnePlus, and Xolo, which do not have offline distribution channels. Xiaomi is presently the only Chinese hardware maker to go offline and open its Mi Home Stores in India.
This development comes on the heels of Flipkart’s very recent fundraising round. The investment saw the homegrown e-commerce giant add a massive $1.4 billion to its coffers after a very-very long duration.
Though the e-commerce giant’s valuation slipped to around $11 billion as compared to the previous $15 billion, it managed to add some prominent strategic technology partners, namely eBay, Microsoft, and Tencent Holdings. It even acquired eBay’s India ops to up the ante against the American giant, who’s won consumer trust within just three years.
In addition to the wholesale unit, Amazon is also pumping capital into building out its payments wallet and retail infrastructure in India. The start of 2017 was not only earmarked with the infusion of a hefty ₹150 crores into its payments arm, but also authorized an increase in share capital for the said subsidiary. The retail arm, on the other hand, is more prominent as Amazon is planning to invest about $500 million in the country’s food retail space, along with kicking off multiple brick and mortar stores.
