Amazon invests Rs 260 crore into payments arm as e-commerce battle rages

Mumbai: Amidst e-commerce biggies locking horns to outdo eachother in the e-commerce space, Amazon has invested Rs 260 crore in its e-wallet service Amazon Pay.

According to the Economic Times, the e-retail company bagged the investment from Singapore-based Amazon Corporate Holdings and its parent company in US, a filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) showed.

In April this year, Amazon received the Reserve Bank of India’s nod to launch its own digital wallet in India. With this, Amazon tapped into the rapidly expanding digital payments business in India.

With the licence to operate its prepaid payment instrument (PPI) – Amazon Pay, where Amazon has put in more than Rs 350 crore so far, the e-commerce firm is set to take on rivals like PayTM, Freecharge and Mobikwik.

The infusion to Amazon Pay comes days after Amazon increased the authorised capital for its payments arm to Rs 2,000 crore.

Meanwhile, Flipkart recently committed USD 500 million to its payments arm PhonePe. Paytm also raised USD 1.4 billion from Softbank this year.

These developments suggest that the major players in the e-retail space are readying themselves to battle it out in the e-payments field.