Amazon Data Services India is primarily into the business of offering cloud computing for data storage, protection, safety and recovery and web hosting services
Sameer Ranjan Bakshi
Amazon has pumped in 4.6 million (about Rs 1,381.6 crore) into the Indian arm of its data services operations, recent filings with the Registrar of Companies show.
Amazon has pumped in $214.6 million (about Rs 1,381.6 crore) into the Indian arm of its data services operations, recent filings with the Registrar of Companies show. Amazon Data Services India is primarily into the business of offering cloud computing for data storage, protection, safety and recovery and web hosting services. According to the filing, Amazon Data Services India Private Limited raised the fund from two parent affiliated firms — Amazon.com Inc and A100 Row Inc. While A100 Row pumped in Rs 1,368 crore, Amazon provided the remaining Rs 13.8 crore into the Indian unit. Amazon Data Services allocated 138.16 crore shares having a face value of Rs 10 each to the parent affiliated firms. The investment assumes significance as Amazon is gearing itself for a dual battle in Indian market. While Amazon is facing intense competition from home grown Flipkart in the e-commerce market, it is also seeing itself in a tight spot in the tech space too, after its business rivals Microsoft and Flipkart entered into a strategic tie-up to keep Amazon at bay.
In April this year, Flipkart had secured a $1.4 billion funding and decided to use Microsoft Azure as its exclusive cloud platform. The collaboration also results in Microsoft bagging a large enterprise that could instantly boost its revenues in Indian market. There are also reports of home grown cab aggregator, Ola, looking to switch from Amazon Web Service to Microsoft Azure cloud service. Amazon Data Services India Private Ltd was incorporated in June 2016 with an authorised share capital of Rs 900 crore ($139.6 million). The latest filing has come close on the heels of Amazon.com Inc having infused $260 million (Rs 1,680 crore) in Amazon Seller Services Private Ltd – Amazon’s Indian arm that is running the Indian e-commerce operations. It is unclear whether the fund infusion into its data services arm is a part of the $5-billion fund that Jeff Bezos committed for Indian market. The latest filing by Amazon has also come soon after the company received approval from the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion recently to invest $515 million in India’s food retail sector.