Amazon India raises Rs 1620 Cr to counter Flipkart in final leg of festival sale

In the wake of the festive season, US-based e-commerce major Amazon has infused Rs 1620 crores in a fresh round of funding in its Indian arm to counter other e-tailers, especially rival Flipkart.

According to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), the investment was made through Amazon Singapore and Amazon Mauritius last month, reported TOI.

Home-grown e-tailer Flipkart too had the festive sale and reported to have outrun Amazon in sales. Flipkart reported generating around Rs 5000 crore in its first festive season whereas Amazon did the sale of around Rs 2500-3000 crore. Though, Seatle-based e-tailer disputed the figure.

"We remain committed to our India business with a long-term perspective to make e-commerce a habit for Indian customers and to invest in the necessary technology and infrastructure to grow the entire ecosystem," an Amazon India spokesperson said.

Also Read: Flipkart says cash burning irrelevant: Do investors think the same?

Amazon, which has now completed its total investment commitment of $5 billion in India in past two years, is investing aggressively in categories like fashion, where the Flipkart group has a majority share, in addition to grocery, FMCG and other new categories.

Earlier, the Seattle-based company had poured in Rs 400 crore more into its Indian logistics arm to expand its business operations, and it was planning to invest Rs 1600 crores in its Indian payment arm

Flipkart has been investing with the same flow. Recently it had committed to infusing fresh round of $500 million into the payments platform Phonepe. The Bengaluru-based e-tailer also invested in Ekart via its subsidiary Instakart Services Private Limited. The main rival of Amazon in India is in talks with movie and event ticket booking platform BookMyShow for a strategic partnership.

According to a recent report, e-tailers companies in India may sell more than Rs 20,000 crore ($3.3 billion) worth of goods during Diwali festive online sales, while Assocham says that online shoppers may splurge over Rs 30,000 crore on goods like mobile phones, electronic gadgets, consumer durables, apparel and home appliances during the festive season leading to Diwali.

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