Amazon India’s payments unit gets $95.5 mln from parent ahead of festive season

BENGALURU (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc has invested 7 billion rupees ($95.51 million) in its Indian payments unit, ahead of the festive season, data from business intelligence firm Tofler showed.

Amazon will begin its festive season sales on Oct. 17, and has been trying to encourage payments through Amazon Pay with cashbacks and other rewards.

Both Amazon and Flipkart offer deep discounts on everything from clothes, smartphones to home appliances ahead of key Hindu festivals Dussehra and Diwali.

In July, Jeff Bezos-led Amazon.com had invested 23.10 billion rupees in Amazon Seller Services and early this year announced a $1 billion investment to bring more than 10 million small businesses online in India by 2025. [nL4N29K1LR]

Amazon, billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries and Walmart Inc’s Flipkart are in a race to gain market share in India’s fast-growing online market for food and groceries.

Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance is also expanding its new commerce venture and has raised 377.19 billion rupees ($5.14 billion) in a month by selling stakes in its retail unit to investors including KKR & Co, private equity firm Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Co. [nL4N2GX2QD]

Meanwhile, this week, Amazon.com Inc sent a legal notice to Future Group, alleging the retailer’s $3.38 billion asset sale to Reliance breached an agreement with the e-commerce giant. [nL4N2GY2U4]

($1 = 73.2900 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)