Just like every other internet giant, Amazon is also bullish about the scope of mobile payments in the Indian market. To prove its case, the Jeff Bezos-owned brand has reportedly acquired Bengaluru-based startup called Tapzo.
The deal values Tapzo—a platform for aggregating over 35 apps, including those of Uber Technologies Inc., Ola and Swiggy—at about $35-40 million, according to sources close to the development.
"Our commitment to the vision of a less-cash India remains the same,” said an Amazon spokesperson, who refused to comment on the deal. “Our goal is to simplify digital payments by improving the customer experience, affordability...”
A Tapzo spokesperson was unavailable for comment.
By dealing in Tapzo, Amazon could make early inroads into the mobile payment space, likely to absorb the entire team and get them to work on integrating products to its own web and mobile platform.
With Tapzo under its wings, Amazon will look to strengthen the base for Amazon Pay with more features, making its capable of competing with other platforms like Paytm, PhonePe from Flipkart and even Google Pay (rebranded Tez).
Currently, Tapzo allows users to transact with 35 companies, across segments like food delivery, cab hailing and bus ticket booking, on its platform. It claims to have a customer base of over 5 million users.
This isn’t the first instance where a global brand has acquired an Indian startup to push its case in mobile payments. Sweden-based Truecaller, also keen on the payments, had acquired another Indian startup called Chillr earlier this year.
The acquisition of local companies could also ensure that all the data pertaining to its consumers are stored within India, without bearing the cost of migrating all the data from its global data centers.
These stipulations were raised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) through its financial data storage circular released few months back.
(With PTI inputs)
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