Amazon India invests $450 million into its marketplace arm

Amazon appears to be upping its ante against arch-rivals with series of investments in different units. The Seattle-based company has invested $450 million (Rs 2,900 crore) into Amazon Seller Service. This is the largest capital infusion into its marketplace arm ever in a year. With this, the total investment in its Indian unit reaches $4 billion (Rs 26,180 crore).

Amazon’s top brass Jeff Bezos had promised to invest $5 billion in its Indian business. However, it seems the online retail giant will surpass the aforementioned amount as it has passed the resolution to increase share capital from $2.4 billion to $4.8 billion.

“As India’s largest and fastest-growing e-commerce player, and with a long-term commitment to make e-commerce a habit for Indian customers, we continue to invest in the necessary technology and infrastructure to grow the entire ecosystem. We are delighted and humbled by the trust from our customers, to lead in India on things that matter to our customers in over four years of our business, while continuing to launch innovative India-first initiatives as well as completely new offerings like Echo, Prime and Prime Video,” Amazon India said to Economic Times.

So far, Amazon had poured in $512 million in its marketplace arm this year. In June, it had invested $260 million while last month the Bezos-led company raked up $251 million. During last fiscal, it invested $312 million in total in its marketplace arm.

Earlier this month, Amazon Transportation Services (ATS), the logistics arm of e-tailer Amazon India, had received $20 million from its parent entity.

Over the past couple of years, Amazon has been on investment spree to acquire customers, creating fulfilment centres and sprucing up its distribution and logistics infrastructures. Currently, it has 42 warehouses and 32 fulfilment centres across 13 cities.