Amazon India on Thursday announced a $250 million venture fund that will invest in start-ups which focus on technology innovations for digitisation of small and medium businesses (SMBs), agriculture and healthcare.
“Small and medium sized businesses are often the engine and the lifeblood of economies and I think it’s true in India as well. And we are very passionate about trying to enable acceleration of SMBs in fuelling innovation and the economy in India,” Andy Jassy, Amazon Web Services CEO and incoming CEO of Amazon, said at the company’s ‘Smbhav’ event.
The company added that the venture fund will invest in technology-led start-ups that are passionate about unlocking possibilities of a digital India.
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In the SMB sector, Amazon will invest in technology start-ups that digitise SMBs for demand access, efficient operations and supply chain efficiency.
“The venture fund will independently invest in start-ups, building solutions to empower SMBs to launch, manage, and grow their business online, automate and digitize their operations, and expand their business globally by exporting to customers worldwide. These investments will help seed and scale-up innovation in the sector,” it said.
Similarly in the agri-tech sector, the venture fund aims to invest in Indian start-ups that are using technology to bring the best produce to consumers, make agri-inputs more accessible to farmers, provide tailored agronomy solutions to farmers to improve productivity, distribute credit and insurance to farmers or reduce food waste by building efficient farm to fork supply chains.
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In the healthcare sector, the venture fund will invest in start-ups that are using technology for doctor assistance, telemedicine, e-diagnosis, AI powered treatment recommendations or digitizing operations of healthcare providers such as independent primary care clinics, diagnostic labs, pharmacy value chain or specialty doctor clinics for improving access to a wider patient base agnostic of physical geographic location.
The e-commerce giant also announced plans to digitally empower and bring one million offline retailers and neighbourhood stores online, on the Amazon India marketplace, by 2025 through the Local Shops on Amazon programme. It also launched the ‘Spotlight North East’ initiative to bring 50,000 artisans, weavers and small businesses online from the eight states in the North East region of India by 2025 and to boost exports of key commodities like tea, spices and honey from the region.
Amit Agarwal, Global Senior VP and Country Head, Amazon India said, “The launch of Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund aims to attract best ideas and empower entrepreneurs in the country to partner in this vision. Additionally, our initiatives to on-board one million offline shops on Amazon.in and digitally empower the North East region will accelerate the progress towards a digital and self-reliant India.”