Amazon India to pump in fresh capital into its payment arm

In a bid to take on rivals like Paytm, Freecharge, and Flipkart's PhonePe, Amazon is gearing up to pump in fresh funds into its digital payments arm, Amazon Pay, according to the filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Apparently, Amazon has increased its authorized capital for Amazon Pay India Pvt. Ltd to Rs 2,000 crore (roughly $305 million) from Rs 400 crore, as first reported by Livemint.

Amazon Pay had recently received two fund infusions, of $20 million and $10.67 million from its US-based parent Amazon and Singapore-based arm Amazon Corporate Holdings Pvt. Ltd.

“The company is in need of funds for the expansion of business operations. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the authorized equity share capital to accommodate future funds requirements,” Amazon said in the filings. “Keeping in view the future funding needs of the company, it would be prudent to increase the authorized equity share capital adequately to be in line with the capital requirements of the company,” it further added.

Amazon's fresh funding for its payment arm is clearly aimed at gaining a bigger foothold in the country's growing digital landscape. Both Flipkart and Paytm are also spending millions of dollars to expand their own payments businesses.

“Our focus is to make digital payments the most trusted, convenient and rewarding choice for customers. We continue to explore ways to do this, in partnership with banks, processors, fintech companies and ecosystem partners. We remain committed to our India business with a long-term perspective to make digital payments a habit for Indian customers and to invest in the necessary technology and infrastructure to grow the entire ecosystem,” an Amazon spokesperson told the publication.