Global e-tailing giant Amazon.com, Inc. has infused $250.3 million (Rs 1,620 crore) into its India-based seller operations arm Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd, filings with the Registrar of Companies showed.
Amazon raised the sum from its Singapore-based group entity Amazon Corporate Holdings and Mauritius-based group entity Amazon.com.incs Ltd. The investment was secured on September 15 by allocating 162 crore equity shares with face value of Rs 10 apiece, the filings stated.
The fund injection comes three months after Amazon India’s seller services received $260 million (Rs 1,680 crore).
Amazon India did not respond to e-mail queries from VCCircle seeking confirmation at the time of publishing this report.
The development was first reported by The Times of India.
The report comes in the midst of the third leg of festive season sales. By varying accounts, Amazon is estimated to have clocked Rs 2,500-2,700 crore in gross sales in the first phase of festive season sales while homegrown rival Flipkart is estimated to have sold goods worth Rs 5,000 crore. Amazon has, however, disputed these figures.
While announcing Amazon’s first-quarter results in April, Bezos called India as one of the company’s fastest-growing markets. In 2014, the company had invested $2 billion in India and had committed another $3 billion in June 2016, taking total investment in the country to $5 billion.
In a media interaction earlier this year, Amazon India country head Amit Aggarwal had claimed 85% sales growth in the first quarter of 2017.
Besides, Amazon Prime, which bundles faster delivery, exclusive deals and access to its video library, seems to have reaped rich dividends. Amazon Prime head Greg Greeley had recently told The Times of India that India was the fastest-growing market for Prime, and the service had sold more subscriptions here compared to its first year in the US.
