Amazon Acquires India-Based EMVANTAGE Payments
Online marketplace giant Amazon is acquiring India-based online services provider EMVANTAGE Payments. The acquisition, announced Feb. 16, is intended to make further inroads in developing Amazon’s e-commerce presence in India. EMVANTAGE is the developer of a payment gateway, prepaid cards and a mobile prepaid wallet, among other payments products and services. Specifics of the deal were not disclosed; however, the deal is expected to close this quarter and EMVANTAGE’s employees will be retained under the Amazon umbrella to develop payment products specifically for the Indian market, according to the announcement.
Amazon was the top e-commerce site in India, according to its earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2015 released in January. The company also reported that downloads of the Amazon.in mobile shopping app grew faster in the fourth quarter than any other e-commerce app in India, citing global analytics firm comScore and app analytics company App Annie.
“We’ve seen explosive growth in the number and success of payments companies in India, particularly in the payment facilitator arena, says Todd Ablowitz, president at Double Diamond Group and co-founder and publisher of paymentfacilitator.com. “EMVANTAGE promotes its platform as ‘the best gateway in India,’ which could be useful to Amazon either for its own use, or very possibly as a platform to grow an Indian payments business,” he tells Pay News.
The acquisition is important for Amazon as it “accelerates our payment offerings,” according to Srinivas Rao, director, Amazon Payments India. “We are laser focused on providing customers in India with a convenient and trustworthy shopping experience,” he said.
The acquisition of EMVANTAGE in India follows Amazon’s launch Feb. 13 of a “Make in India” store on its platform, offering products—from toys to yoga accessories—made in India by 6,000 Indian manufacturers and sellers.
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