Amazon acquires Indian retail startup Perpule for $14.7 million

Amazon has acquired an Indian startup that helps offline stores move online, its latest attempt to enter the country.

The US e-commerce group said on the 30th that it has acquired four-year-old startup Perpule. A regulatory filing showed that Amazon Technologies acquired the Indian startup for $14.7 million in all cash. The company is expected to spend an additional $5 million or so to pay Perpule employees.

Perpule, which has raised $6.36 million, provides mobile payment devices (point-of-sale machines) to offline retailers, helping them accept digital payments and build a presence on various small app stores in India, including Paytm, PhonePe and Google Pay.

An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement : “ Perpule has built an innovative cloud-based POS service that enables offline stores in India to better manage inventory, checkout processes, and overall customer experience. We are excited to have the Perpule team join us as we focus on enabling growth opportunities for businesses of all sizes in India while raising the bar for the shopping experience for Indian customers. ”

Last year, the company also expanded geographically, bringing its products to Southeast Asian markets including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam.

In recent years, Amazon has actively partnered with physical stores in India, leveraging its huge influence in the country to expand its delivery network and warehouses, or even relying solely on its inventory to drive sales.

Amazon 's push into physical retail in India comes as Flipkart and Reliance Jio Platforms, which is backed by Facebook and Google and raised more than $20 billion last year, are also vying for the market.

In India, physical stores still account for more than 95% of total sales . These neighborhood stores offer a wide variety of items and are run by families, with low wages and little to no rent. According to industry estimates, there are more than 30 million neighborhood stores in India . They are so ubiquitous that no retail giant can offer faster delivery than them . Most importantly, their economics are often better than most of their digital counterparts.

Just a week before Amazon acquired Perpule , Google also invested in DotPe, a startup that offers a similar product .

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Acquisition

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