Amazon recently injected $152 million into its Amazon Seller Services unit in India, according to regulatory filings cited by numerous new outlets in India including Live Mint.
Amazon Seller Services is a part of the eCommerce giant that helps businesses use Amazon to sell goods. The cash infusion comes as the country prepares for its busy festival season.
The new funding, according to Mint, was provided by two other Amazon units — Amazon Corporate Holdings Pvt. Ltd. of Singapore and Amazon.com Inc. of Mauritius. Amazon would not comment on the matter, according to Mint’s report.
In June, the same entities invested more than $300 million in the Amazon India unit, the news outlet reported.
“The fresh infusion will provide more ammunition to Amazon to compete aggressively against Walmart-owned Flipkart and billionaire Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries’ JioMart in the upcoming festive season,” according to Mint.
Various media outlets have reported that two of Amazon’s rivals in the important India market also have seen significant new investments. Flipkart reportedly raised $560 million last week in a round led by Walmart, which is majority owner in Flipkart. Also, JioMart, which is part of giant Reliance Retail, reported it will receive $755 million from KKR and $1 billion from Silver Lake.
Amazon has shown great interest in India, reflected in part by remarks by founder and CEO Jeff Bezos regarding plans to invest billions more in the country.
In early September, Amazon said it was adding insurance offerings and gold sales in India as part of a bid to add Amazon Prime members there.
Facebook has also been pushing hard to develop its operations in India, and recently announced offerings aimed at signing up more small businesses to use the social media network as a sales platform.