Amazon ties up with Narayana Murthy to start an e-commerce business in India

Narayana Murthy, the billionaire co-founder of Indian IT services firm, Infosys, is close to entering into an e-commerce joint venture in India with Amazon.com Inc through his investment firm, Catamaran Ventures. The deal was signed in May.

Catamaran Ventures's partnership with Amazon Asia will target small and medium-sized firms, Arjun Ramegowda Narayanswamy, who heads the private investment company, said to Reuters on Friday.

An official from Amazon's India unit, who did not want to be identified as the details of the deal is not public, told Reuters that Amazon will support the venture with logistics and technology know-how. He declined to give details.

Narayanswamy said,“Catamaran is partnering with Amazon Asia to offer services that help offline sellers and SMBs in India to get online and to take advantage of the fast-growing online customer base in the country.”

The joint venture named Taurus Business And Trade Services will operate in major Indian cities and towns. It will help offline sellers and small & medium businesses (SMBs) by training them in online tools so that they can improve the customer base online as well as improve footfalls and revenues.

“The partnership will focus, accelerate and scale the inclusion of SMBs into the digital economy,” Catamaran said in an email.

Amazon and Catamaran were not immediately available for comment. Catamaran will hold a 51 percent stake in the business, as required under India's foreign direct investment rules, Financial Express reported.

Murthy built up Infosys into one of India's top outsourcing service companies. He stepped down as executive chairman of the company earlier this month.