Amazon to acquire Indian fintech Axio in credit push

Amazon has agreed to the acquisition Indian Buy Now Pay Later Startup Acciois deepening its push into financial services in one of its fastest-growing markets as it seeks to expand access to credit to millions of underserved consumers.

The US technology group, which has held an equity stake in Axio for six years, signed the acquisition agreement in December after completing due diligence, the Indian startup said in a blog post.

Financial terms were not disclosed. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup, formerly known as Capital Float, has raised $232 million over the years against equity and debt from investors including Peak XV Partners, Rebit Capital, Elevation Capital.

The startup, which specializes in providing small-scale credit to self-employed individuals and households at the point of sale on major e-commerce platforms including Amazon and MakeMyTrip, said it serves more than 10 million customers and has built a loan book of more than. $260 million.

Axio is among a group of Indian startups operating in a market where access to traditional credit is limited – credit card penetration in India is low, and conventional banks often find small-ticket loans unprofitable.

The startup sought to address this gap by building a regulated lending platform that can quickly assess creditworthiness, making credit decisions “within two clicks and five seconds.” But like many other startups in the category, Axio has struggled to maintain its growth. Goldman Sachs-backed ZestMoney, which operates in the same space and was once valued at $450 million, also struggles and eIncidentally a fire sale is picked up by a traditional firm.

Axio is the second startup Amazon has acquired in India, where it has invested more than $10 billion so far. the amazon acquired On-demand video streaming service MX Player in June last year.