Amazon India on Tuesday announced that it has earmarked $120 million for investment in manufacturing and AI startups in the country through its Smbhav Venture Fund, expanding the $250 million fund size. The announcement was made at the company’s annual event for small business, Smbhav.
Launched in 2021, the fund backs technology startups and has expanded its scope from earlier focusing on agriculture and healthcare startups to direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands and sectors including fintech, gaming and manufacturing.
Some of its portfolio companies include The Good Glamm Group, FreshToHome, XYXX, Hopscotch, Cashify, Acko Insurance, smallcase, M1xchange, etc.
Particularly for exports from India, the company on Tuesday announced that it would enable over $80 billion in cumulative e-commerce exports from India by 2030, growing by 4x from its pledge to enable $20 million in e-commerce exports by 2025.
According to Amazon, the ‘Made in India’ products in home & kitchen, apparel & textiles, toys, health & nutrition supplements and Ayurveda categories have high demand.
Amazon India said it has already enabled nearly $13 billion in e-commerce exports from the country under its Amazon Global Selling programme since 2015. The programme currently has more than 1.5 lakh registered sellers from over 200 cities in India
The sellers are set to surpass $20 billion in cumulative exports from India by 2024-end, the company said.
“This significant milestone will be driven by a combination of enabling exports through Amazon’s Global Selling program for Indian MSMEs, manufacturers and D2C startups as well as sourcing Made-in-India products to be sold on Amazon’s global marketplaces,” said Samir Kumar, Country Manager, Amazon India at the event.
The company on Tuesday also announced the full-fledged launch of its logistics services Amazon Freight and Amazon Shipping in India after successful pilots for both the services in the country. Amazon Freight’s pilot run was launched in India earlier this year while Amazon Shipping piloted in 2021.
Amazon Freight focuses on intra-city and inter-city transportation services with full truckload options ranging from 5-40 ft. On the other hand, Amazon Shipping is a last-mile B2C delivery service covering over 14,000 pin codes.
In January 2023, Amazon had launched its Amazon Air in India, making it the first e-commerce company in the country to have a dedicated air cargo network.
On Tuesday, the company said it has digitised 12 million MSMEs in the country, surpassing its target of digitising 10 million MSMEs one year ahead of time. It also said that it has created nearly 1.4 million direct and indirect jobs.