According to TechCrunch, the initiative comes at a time when the company, which has previously invested more than USD 6.5 billion in its India-based business, faces pressure from government bodies, and the SMBs that it purports to serve. Consequently, through the new venture fund, called Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund, Amazon said it wants to invest in startups that focus on helping small businesses come online, sell online, automate and digitise their operations, and expand to customers worldwide. However, the company didn’t share the life cycle of the fund.
Furthermore, the announcement was made at Amazon’s annual four-day event, called Smbhav (which means 'possible' in Hindi), that focuses on India-based SMBs. The company reported more than 50,000 offline retailers and neighbourhood stores – called kirana locally – are using Amazon marketplace and about 250,000 new sellers have also joined the platform. Additionally, Amazon aims to onboard 1 million offline retailers and neighbourhood stores by 2025 through the Local Shops on Amazon programme.
Besides, Amazon stated it has led a USD 10 million investment round in M1xchange, a startup that operates an invoice discounting marketplace exchange for MSMEs. M1xchange connects MSMEs with banks and financiers – and vice versa –through the marketplace exchange and the MSME is able to assign its invoice dues to a bank or financier and receive financing at better rates; thereby, solving the payments challenge for MSMEs. This is the first investment from the company’s Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund, TechCrunch reported.
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