E-commerce major, Amazon India, on Thursday, announced a $250 million ‘Smbhav venture fund’ to invest in startups and entrepreneurs, focussing on technology innovations in the domain of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The fund will focus on three big areas – digitisation of small businesses in the country, agri-tech innovations to empower farmer productivity and health tech to provide universal and quality healthcare for Indian citizens, said Amit Agarwal, global senior vice president and country head of Amazon India.
Along with this, Amazon India also pledged to onboard 1 million offline retailers and neighbourhood stores by 2025 through its Local Shops on Amazon program.
Amazon had launched the ‘Local Shops on Amazon’ program to help bring offline retailers and neighbourhood stores online and supplement footfalls at their stores with a digital presence on Amazon.in.
The e-commerce company also announced the launch of ‘Spotlight North East’ initiative which looks to provide technology tools and customers to local women and tribal communities in India’s northeast region. The company looks to benefit 50,000 weavers, artisans from tribal communities, including local small businesses and offline neighbourhood stores, by 2025.
Surjitt Sahani
