Amazon could also be trying to tackle Shopify within the west, however in India, it’s gearing as much as discover social commerce.
Amazon India has acquired the social commerce startup GlowRoad because the e-commerce big makes an even bigger push into certainly one of its key abroad markets, a supply instantly conversant in the matter informed Avisionews.
In an announcement, Amazon India confirmed the acquisition, saying that the transfer will assist the corporate make inroads with its dedication to digitizing India’s 10 million native Indian companies by 2025.
The American big, which has invested over $6.5 billion in its India operations, added: “Amazon continues to discover new methods to digitize India and delight clients, micro- entrepreneurs and sellers and bringing GlowRoad onboard is a key step on this route.”
“Along with GlowRoad, Amazon will assist speed up entrepreneurship amongst thousands and thousands of creators, homemakers, college students, and small sellers from throughout the nation. This acquisition will complement GlowRoad’s already cherished service with Amazon’s expertise, infrastructure, and digital funds capabilities, bringing extra effectivity and cost-saving for everybody.”
GlowRoad sells merchandise to clients at wholesale costs and helps them resell it on Fb and WhatsApp. It additionally offers them with logistics community (to assist ship the product) and the flexibility to gather money. On its web site, the startup says it has constructed a community of over 6 million resellers who earn on a mean of 35,000 Indian rupees ($460) monthly.
Earlier this month, GlowRoad stated it would develop to some markets within the Southeast Asia area.
“GlowRoad is dedicated to creating extra ‘homepreneurs’ and bringing many distinctive and unbranded suppliers to the platform. Even after 4 years, we’ve got simply scratched the floor, and there’s a lot extra to do,” stated co-founder Shekhar Sahu.
The four-year-old startup, which we’ve got written about twice beforehand, counts Accel, CDH, Vertex and Korea Funding Companions amongst its backers and had raised about $32 million in earlier investments, in keeping with information intelligence platform Tracxn.
Avisionews couldn’t decide the quantity Amazon is paying for the acquisition, however the supply stated that GlowRoad’s staff will be part of the e-commerce big. The supply requested anonymity because the matter will not be public but.
Amazon’s experimentation with social commerce comes at a time when its chief rival, Walmart-owned Flipkart, is aggressively gearing up its personal social commerce providing, known as Shopsy, within the nation. A handful of startups together with SoftBank and Fb-backed Meesho and Alpha Wave International and Tiger International-backed Dealshare additionally function within the social commerce area and luxuriate in a bigger market share than that of Shopsy, in keeping with trade estimates.
Final 12 months, YouTube additionally made a push into social commerce in India by buying Good Capital-backed Simsim, Avisionews first reported.
