After Flipkart, Amazon India is now expanding its presence in the FinTech space. According to a report in Economic Times, Amazon is in talks with Bengaluru-based digital lending startup Capital Float for an investment of up to $5-10 million to be able to offer financial services online. In turn, Capital Float will start consumer financing on Amazon.
Amazon’s investment into Capital Float will be an extension of the recent round Capital Float raised. The Bengaluru-based startup provides collateral-free unsecured business loans for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and MSMEs without security with lowest interest rate. It also provides financing to ecommerce sellers.
Capital Float recently raised $45 million in its Series-C funding round led by Ribbit Capital. The round also saw existing investors SAIF Partners, Sequoia India and Creation Investments invest in the round. ET reports that Capital Float is valued at Rs 836 crore ($125 million) before the fund was raised. In terms of revenue, Capital Float posted a revenue of Rs 53.8 crore in FY17, while its losses widened to Rs 63.5 crore.
Amazon, on its part, has been building its payments business Amazon Pay in India to take on players such as PhonePe and Paytm. It infused Rs 260 crore into Amazon Pay in amazon to take on PhonePe.
As part of its focus on Fintech, it has also invested in online financial services marketplace BankBazaar and gifting and loyalty points’ player Qwikcilver.
Ecommerce players have been looking to enter the financial products space to offer more than just a digital payments solution. Flipkart has been looking at offering financial products such as insurance, lending and more. It has also been aggressively growing its UPI payments arm PhonePe, which claimedmto have processed over 1 million daily transactions worth over Rs 100 crore each day in November. Paytm already has a few insurance products on board, while its competitor MobiKwik is also looking to enter this space.