MUMBAI: Amazon will invest $233 million (over Rs 2,000 crore) in India this year to expand and upgrade the company’s operations infrastructure in the country. Portions of the capital will also be deployed to build new tools and technology for the firm’s fulfilment network as the Seattle-based e-commerce company takes on deep-pocketed startups Zepto, Zomato, and Swiggy in the cash-guzzling quick commerce space.“This new investment builds on top of Amazon’s investments in creating an ops network that helps the company deliver to all serviceable pin codes across India. This investment will enhance processing capacity, improve fulfilment speed, and increase efficiency across the company’s operations network that will help Amazon serve customers across India faster,” the firm said in a statement on Thursday.For Amazon, which entered India twelve years ago and was largely operating in a two-player e-commerce market alongside Walmart-controlled Flipkart for a good few years, competition has now grown. Startups such as Meesho, backed by storied investors like SoftBank, are foraying into the market and carving a space of their own by targeting a whole new set of customers who were underserved. Conglomerates such as Reliance Industries and Tata Group are also investing in e-commerce. Besides, startups Swiggy, Zepto, and Zomato’s Blinkit have created a growing market for 10-minute deliveries in India, a new challenge for Amazon, which was late to enter the quick commerce space.
