Amazon takes on PhonePe, Paytm, infuses Rs 260 Cr in its payment arm

Global e-commerce major Amazon has invested Rs 260 crore into its payments arm Amazon Pay, as the company looks to push its wallet beyond its marketplace to other online merchants and take on Flipkart's PhonePe, Paytm and MobiKwik.

According to RoC (Registrar of Companies) filings, the latest investment came from Singapore-based Amazon Corporate Holdings and its US-based parent Amazon.

Launched in December, last year, Amazon Pay, rolled out third-party payments in July, mainly accepted for online movie booking, traveling ordering food online. It has now tied up with 25 brands online stores and currently lives on Redbus, Abhibus, Faasos, Freshmenu, Box 8, Haptik, Komparify, and Niki, among others.

Amazon has so far invested Rs 350 crore into Amazon Pay, got a PPI (prepaid instrument) or a wallet licence from banking regulator RBI (Reserve Bank of India) this April.

Also Read: RBI strict KYC norms on e-wallets, to become interoperable in 6 months

While Paytm raised $1.4 billion from Japan's Softbank earlier this year, Bengaluru-based e-commerce platform Flipkart has committed to infuse fresh round of $500 million into the payments platform Phonepe, which claims to be a leader in UPI payments. Mobile-based payment company MobiKwik also announced to raise Rs 225 crore from NBFC Bajaj Finance.

Earlier this week, Amazon announced that it would allow its customers to use Amazon Pay balance account for booking tickets across BookMyShow platforms.

Meanwhile, Flipkart’s interest in BookMyShow appears to be aligned with its strategy to fuel the usage of PhonePe. The Bengaluru-based company is in the preliminary stage to invest in the online movie and event booking platform.

“A concern is that even the low usage wallets with limited merchant transaction functionality, are required to do a KYC beyond 12 months. This adds friction to customers and costs to the issuer. In line with international guidelines, a framework of proportional KYC could have been adopted,“  said Sriram Jagannathan, vice-president (payments), Amazon India, reported ET.

Also Read: Why digital payment companies feel threatened by new RBI rules

Amazon’s recent move is in sync with ongoing developments in Payment space where Alibaba and Softbank are pumping in billions of dollars to build mobile wallet payment system in India.

Amazon Pay: Website