Amazon India Considers Launching Separate Platform for Amazon Pay

Amazon Pay, the digital payments offering of e-commerce giant Amazon, is set to undergo major changes, sources report.

According to a TechCrunch report citing sources, the American tech giant is exploring the possibility of launching a standalone app for its payments service in India.

Sources said the move is aimed at boosting the use of Amazon Pay, which is currently integrated only with Amazon’s main e-commerce app in the country.

Amazon Pay allows users to transfer money, pay bills, buy insurance, travel tickets, invest in mutual funds, and buy digital gold. These offerings are currently limited to the interface with Amazon’s e-commerce app.

The deliberations have been ongoing for a year, the report said, as Amazon India executives feel that Amazon Pay may not have enough visibility in the e-commerce app.

Inc42 has reached out to the company to verify the facts. The story will be updated based on the response.

If the new platform for Amazon Pay materializes, it would complement the e-commerce major’s existing emphasis on its digital payments arm. In June Amazon added INR 600 Cr (approximately USD 72 million) in Amazon Pay India, taking the total investment in the company to INR 1950 million.

Amazon Pay India has received authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for act as a payment aggregator (PA) in February. In addition, it also has a license for a prepaid payment instrument (PPI).

To further expand its financial technology offerings, the entity has reportedly partnered with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) since April to make credit services available to customers via the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

In July, Amazon Pay enabled the sixth-highest number of UPI transactions in India. A total of 7.24 Cr of customer transactions were recorded during the month, taking the total to INR 7,995.92 Cr.