With an aim to foster growth in India’s start-up ecosystem, tech giant Amazon has pledged an additional $120 million to its Smbhav Venture Fund which is focused on supporting new ventures in manufacturing and brand building across the country.
Agarwal, SVP of Emerging Markets, made this announcement at the fifth edition of the Amazon Smbhav Summit at New Delhi's Bharat Mandapam, along with country manager Samir Kumar.
This initiative comes as part of a newly signed memorandum of understanding with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.
Originally launched in 2021 with a corpus of $250 million, the Smbhav Fund has been instrumental in backing small businesses in sectors like agritech, digital transformation, and domestic manufacturing. The fund expansion will now help elevate local businesses in critical areas like production capabilities and national brand development.
Amazon's Logistics Solution
Simultaneously, Amazon has also unveiled two logistics solutions—Amazon Shipping and Amazon Freight—designed to capitalize on its expansive logistics network and AI-powered delivery systems. These services are aimed at providing Indian businesses with reliable, scalable, and efficient shipping options, further strengthening Amazon’s role as a key enabler of business growth in the country.
Amit Agarwal stated that Indian market has always been one of the most competitive marketplace for Amazon, start-ups, and SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses) to be credited.
With these new initiatives, Amazon is positioning itself as a major catalyst in the evolution of India's startup and e-commerce landscape, empowering businesses.
Meanwhile, Amazon is also all set to speed up its quick commerce delivery service that is codenamed Tez by December this year or early next year. The company's entry into the quick commerce space is coming at a time when the quick commerce space has been booming in India. Several key players who entered the space include Reliance Retail, Flipkart, and others.
Some of the prominent players already present in the segment include Zepto, Blinkit, and Instagram. Quick commerce platform Zepto recently raised $300 million in its fundraise recently.
(Disclaimer: More details are being added.)
