Credit and Finance for MSMEs: In a fireside chat with Amazon India Head Amit Agarwal, the e-commerce company’s incoming CEO Andy Jassy on Thursday announced a $250 million Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund for startups and entrepreneurs focusing on digitising smaller and medium enterprises (SMEs), innovating in the agriculture and healthcare sectors to boost farmer productivity and healthcare access for folks working with technologies respectively. Jassy also announced plans to bring 1 million offline retailers and neighbourhood shops on Amazon India marketplace by 2025 via its Local Shops on Amazon programme. ‘Spotlight North East’ was an additional initiative announced to get 50,000 artisans, weavers, and smaller firms on line from the eight states in the North East area of India by 2025 and also enhance exports of essential commodities like tea, spices, and honey from the area.
“In 2020, we pledged to digitize 10 million SMBs, enable $10 billion in exports, and create 1 million jobs by 2025…The launch of Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund aims to attract the best ideas and empower entrepreneurs in the country to partner in this vision. Additionally, our initiatives to onboard 1 million offline shops on Amazon.in and digitally empower the North East region will accelerate the progress towards a digital and self-reliant India,” Agarwal added.
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Startups enabling SMEs for their demand access, effective operations, and provide chain efficiency along with assisting them to launch, handle, and develop their company on line, and automate and digitize their operations would be on the radar of the venture fund. In agri sector, the fund will invest in startups assisting farmers to boost productivity, distribute credit and insurance coverage to farmers or minimize meals waste by constructing effective farm to fork provide chains. On the other hand, in healthcare sector, the fund will back startups that are working with technologies for medical doctor help, telemedicine, e-diagnosis, AI-powered therapy suggestions or digitizing operations of healthcare providers. Amazon also announced an investment in invoice discounting marketplace M1xchange for MSMEs established below the TReDS license. The investment has been created from the venture fund.
Amazon had final week shared the progress it has created in India so far considering that its inception in June 2013. The firm had mentioned that it has cumulatively digitised 2.5 million MSMEs in India so far. Moreover, the cumulative e-commerce exports by more than 70,000 MSMEs by means of Amazon Global Selling stood at more than $3 billion that helped churn out close to 1 million direct and indirect jobs in India till date. Amazon has so far announced about $7 billion investment in India exactly where it competes with Walmart-owned Flipkart.