Amazon India's payments unit gets $95.5 mln from parent ahead of festive season

Future Consumer

09/10/2020 04:54

BENGALURU, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc  AMZN.O  has
invested 7 billion rupees ($95.51 million) in its Indian
payments unit, ahead of the festive season, data from business
intelligence firm Tofler showed.
    Amazon will begin its festive season sales on Oct. 17, and
has been trying to encourage payments through Amazon Pay with
cashbacks and other rewards. 
    Both Amazon and Flipkart offer deep discounts on everything
from clothes, smartphones to home appliances ahead of key Hindu
festivals Dussehra and Diwali.
    In July, Jeff Bezos-led Amazon.com had invested 23.10
billion rupees in Amazon Seller Services and early this year
announced a $1 billion investment to bring more than 10 million
small businesses online in India by 2025.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N29K1LR
    Amazon, billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries
 RELI.NS  and Walmart Inc's  WMT.N  Flipkart are in a race to
gain market share in India's fast-growing online market for food
and groceries.     
    Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance is also expanding its
new commerce venture and has raised 377.19 billion rupees ($5.14
billion) in a month by selling stakes in its retail unit to
investors including KKR & Co, private equity firm Silver Lake
and Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Co.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2GX2QD
    Meanwhile, this week, Amazon.com Inc sent a legal notice to
Future Group, alleging the retailer's $3.38 billion asset sale
to Reliance breached an agreement with the e-commerce giant.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2GY2U4
    

($1 = 73.2900 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru;
Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)
 ((Sethuraman.NR@thomsonreuters.com; (+91 8061822737); Reuters
Messaging: nallur.sethuraman.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))