Amazon Seller Services infuses Rs1,620 cr from foreign arms

Global ecommerce giant Amazon.com has infused Rs1,620 crore ($250 million) into its Indian marketplace arm Amazon Seller Services, according to a company filing with the registrar of companies.

The allotment dated 15 September had two allottees - the Singapore-based entity Amazon Corporate Holdings and Mauritius-based Amazon.com. Amazon Seller Services issued 1,619,925,148 shares to Amazon Corporate Holdings and 74,852 shares to Amazon.com for Rs10 apiece, for a total investment of Rs1,620 crore.

The investment joins the league of other periodic investments that parent company Amazon has made after founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos committed $5 billion to its Indian businesses in 2016. Earlier this year, the parent company Amazon had invested Rs1,680 crore in Amazon Seller Services, the ecommerce arm, and Rs341 crore in Amazon Wholesale (India).

''With a long-term commitment to make ecommerce a habit for Indian customers, we continue to invest in the necessary technology and infrastructure … while continuing to launch innovative India-first initiatives as well as completely new offerings like Echo, Prime and Prime Video,'' an Amazon India spokesperson said.

The funding has been made amid festive season sales in India where Amazon Seller Services clocked gross merchandise value of $400 million in the first leg of the festive season sale from September 21-24, while rival Flipkart clocked $850 million during its five-day sale period in the same month, according to Jefferies.