Amazon, the popular US ecommerce company, has invested an additional Rs 600 crore (approximately $72 million) in its Indian fintech arm, Amazon Pay India. This brings Amazon’s total investment in the Indian payments platform to Rs 950 crore so far this year. The company previously invested Rs 350 crore in February.
The capital infusion comes as Amazon Pay India aims to compete with other digital payment services in India, such as Paytm, PhonePe, and Google Pay. Amazon has also invested around Rs 2,500 crore in Amazon Seller Services, the company that operates its ecommerce marketplace in India.
This investment from Amazon comes at a time when the domestic payments market in India is going through changes, including regulatory actions by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) against Paytm Payments Bank earlier this year.
Amazon Pay India offers a range of services, including bill payments, unified payments interface (UPI) payments, and other offerings such as wealth management, ticket booking, and insurance premium payments. The platform has partnerships with companies like Bookmyshow, Makemytrip, Redbus, IRCTC, and Kuvera for movie and travel ticketing, as well as wealth management services.
In February, Amazon Pay India received a payment aggregator (PA) license from the RBI, allowing the company to strengthen its merchant payments business. This is a significant opportunity for Amazon given its large online shopping presence in India. The PA license is the second major regulatory approval that Amazon Pay India has received, following the prepaid payments instrument (PPI) or wallet license.
According to RBI data, as of May 31, Amazon Pay India had 67.5 million prepaid wallets, and in May alone, the platform saw 623 million transactions worth over Rs 211 crore. However, it lags behind competitors like PhonePe, Paytm, and Google Pay in terms of wallet usage and UPI payments.
In terms of UPI transaction volume, Amazon Pay was the fifth largest player in India in May, with less than 1% market share, according to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
In the fiscal year ending March 2023, Amazon Pay reported operational revenue of Rs 2,093 crore, which was nearly flat compared to the previous year. However, its net loss narrowed to Rs 1,499 crore from Rs 1,740 crore. The company has yet to file its earnings for the fiscal year 2024.