Amazon India will lower the bar of entry points for sellers, says Amit Agarwal

Amazon India head, Amit Agarwal said that the online marketplace is continuously seeking to lower the bar of entry points for onboarding new sellers and reach a target of $10 billion cumulative exports by 2025. Agarwal was speaking during the launch of Amazon Global Selling Propel, an accelerator programme’s season 2 which will shortlist 15 start-ups (D2C brands), to scale, seek mentorship and acess funds. Amazon India has onboarded VC firms including Accel, DSG Consumer Partners, in addition to existing investor partners Sequoia Capital and Fireside ventures.

Agarwal said, while quoting a recent NASSCOM study, that the e-commerce exports from India are estimated to reach $125 billion by 2025 and that the online marketplace is working on various measures, including preparing entrepreneurs, helping them with tech adoption , and integrating their businesses with the global e-marketplaces to acess markets worldwide.

He added that in the last six years, Amazon India has generated a cumulative sales of $3 billion sales in exports while partnering with 70,000 sellers/ exporters from India and onboarding  thousands of brands.
 
“We fully endorse the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that start-ups / entrepreneurs are the backbone of the economy and continuously seek to scale D2C / family businesses through our platform,” Amazon India head said. He stated that the current initiative has received applications from 500 start-ups across 100 Indian cities.
 
Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer of the NITI Aayog, praised the phenomenal funding run start-ups had in 2021, a year that minted more than 40 unicorns, and received, $40 billion investments, almost a 3X jump from 2020.
 
“We now have 67000 start-ups in India and see the rise of 3-4 unicorns every month. India has the third largest start-up ecosystem and our companies are now making debut in global markets.Young start-ups at the same time should challenge themselves to be global competitive brands and we should make in india and make for the world,” Kant added.
 
Abhijit Kamra, Director, Global trade, Amazon India said that the Amazon Global Selling Propel programme will provide an equity free grant worth $100,00 to first three start-ups shortlisted. And the programme will enable sellers to reach global markets through 17 marketplaces.