A Decade And $1 Bn Later, Can Amazon Pay Turn Scale Into Fintech Dominance?

More than a decade after entering India as an ecommerce marketplace, Amazon is steadily stitching together a full-stack fintech play through Amazon Pay, spanning UPI, credit, BNPL, insurance and now fixed deposits. However, the road has been both long and delayed.

Seattle-headquartered ecommerce giant Amazon entered India in June 2013 with ecommerce. Today, it offers almost everything under the sun. What’s more audacious is its bid to dominate India’s fintech ecosystem with a flurry of offerings, including UPI, credit cards, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services and even fixed deposits (FDs). 

A quick recap: The ecommerce major launched Amazon Pay India in 2016 to facilitate faster payments on its platform and reduce reliance on cash-on-delivery (COD). However, it was only in February 2019 that the ecommerce giant entered UPI in partnership with Axis Bank.

Today, Amazon Pay positions itself as a full-stack financial companion. It even operates its own non-banking financial company (NBFC), Axio, which it acquired in September 2025 for $200 Mn. 

Despite the financial muscle of the ecommerce giant, the journey feels steady and not rushed.  

“It feels like we have made the transition from just being a payments app to becoming a financial companion. This has been a long journey, and we have a long-term focus on building a fintech business in India,” said Girish Krishnan, the director of payments, rewards and merchant services at Amazon Pay India.

Building In A Market Full Of Friction

Shopping on ecommerce websites isn’t as frictionless as it was a decade ago. Back then, the only pain point was to reduce the failure rates of payments at checkout. 

Today’s peeves have widened to managing the end-to-end payment experience — bill payments, peer-to-peer transfers, third-party merchant payments, offline QR transactions, and cards and credit.

In 2016, ecommerce purchases coupled with digital wallets were often perceived as a convenient way of shopping online. Amazon forayed into the payments business with the launch of its digital wallet, Amazon Pay Balance, in the same year. 

The next turning point in the company’s fintech journey came with the launch of Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card in October 2018. The offering crossed the 5 Mn active users mark in 2025.

While late to the party, Amazon Pay launched its UPI in February 2019 for Android customers. With this, the platform completed its payments’ trinity — wallet, credit card, and UPI. 

It launched Amazon Pay Later in April 2020 during the pandemic period, when India’s BNPL market was in its full swing, thanks to small-ticket purchases on ecommerce platforms. 

This also marked the company’s first serious foray into lending. Amazon Pay Later offered customers an instant credit line for purchases, bill payments, and everyday spending, repayable in flexible installments.

What distinguished Amazon Pay Later was its integration with the Amazon shopping ecosystem. Consumers who already trusted the platform for purchases could extend their buying power without leaving the app.

By 2025, Amazon Pay Later had crossed 10 Mn signups. The product operates through a platform-led loan service provider (LSP) model, where Amazon provides distribution reach and technology while credit underwriting is handled in partnership with NBFCs, and now also through its own subsidiary, Axio.

The Insurance, Travel & Urban Mobility Foray

In 2020, the platform launched car and bike insurance services in partnership with insurance companies. This move was aimed at entering a market where digital distribution was still maturing, but the consumer appetite was growing. 

The same year, Amazon Pay enabled train ticket bookings, engaging itself in one of India’s highest-frequency consumer behaviours. The logic: be where Indians spend money. 

Tickets, insurance premiums, utility bills, and groceries — each touchpoint was another opportunity to make Amazon Pay visible. Offline payments was another way to boost visibility. Therefore, Amazon Pay deployed QR codes at physical stores. These ‘digital mini storefronts’ offered EMI options and discounts at the point of sale.

“When you use Amazon Pay QR to pay, you will also get an option to choose the product you want to buy. Almost like a mini store. It will give you all the offers upfront,”  said Krishnan.

Then came the UPI Circle in October 2025. The feature allows families to share a single UPI handle securely, with configurable permissions. NPCI estimates 21-25 Mn emerging users entering the payments ecosystem without bank accounts. This is the group that UPI Circle has been designed to catch.

Biometric UPI authentication arrived in December 2025 to handle security and usability concerns that challenged the PIN-based UPI payment authentication.

By enabling fingerprint and face-based authentication, Amazon Pay addressed both fraud risk and the friction of OTP entry — particularly for older users or those in low-connectivity environments.

Building The Lending Engine

The single most consequential development in Amazon Pay’s history has been the completion of its $200 Mn acquisition of Axio. The deal gave Amazon Pay its own NBFC licence. With this, it has the regulatory foundation to lend directly to consumers and businesses.

Axio operates as an independent entity within the Amazon ecosystem, maintaining its own regulatory identity while leveraging Amazon’s customer reach. 

Through this acquisition, Amazon is looking at embedded finance opportunities to cater to millions of existing customers, including sellers, which could give it leverage over lending margins.

“Our approach to 2026 is anchored in sustainably expanding access to credit, underpinned by strong risk intelligence and robust underwriting. Through our embedded finance offering with Axio, we enable quick, seamless access to formal credit for millions of customers, supporting affordability and aspirational living,” Krishnan added.

The financial picture for FY25 reflects the cost of building this infrastructure. Amazon Pay India recorded operating revenue of INR  2,097 Cr in FY25, down 8.3% from INR  2,287 Cr in FY24. Net losses narrowed only by 5% to INR  866 Cr from INR  911 Cr a year ago. 

The Fixed Deposit Mania 

Expanding its financial services push, Amazon marked its foray into FDs in January 2026. While delayed, the rationale behind the move, according to Krishnan, is grounded in the fact that fixed deposits are the bedrock of Indian household savings — safe, predictable, and trusted. 

Amazon Pay’s FD offering brings together options from multiple banks on a single interface, letting users compare interest rates and invest without switching between separate banking apps. The platform alerts users to rate changes, positioning itself as a proactive financial adviser rather than a passive transaction layer.

Notably, several fintech and wealthtech firms, including Paytm, CRED and Jupiter, as well as niche players such as Zerodha and Groww, have built FD products around their core offerings, though a few of these initiatives have since been shuttered.

“We took the time necessary to ensure seamless integration, robust security protocols, and full regulatory compliance. Our priority has always been getting it right rather than rushing to market. The result is a product that offers customers a secure, convenient way to grow their savings with the trust and reliability they expect from Amazon,” Krishnan said. 

Amazon Pay already has over 110 Mn+ UPI users. These users interact with the app regularly for shopping, bill payments, travel bookings, QR transactions. 

“Because users visit Amazon Pay often for everyday needs, savings products become more visible and easier to manage. This positions Amazon Pay as a platform for broader financial decision-making,” Krishnan claimed. 

Amazon Pay’s strategic roadmap for 2026 and beyond centres on three vectors — deeper product integration within the Amazon ecosystem, geographic expansion into tier II and III cities, and the evolution of savings and lending products through Axio.

“The tier II and III expansion is particularly significant. These markets are where the next 100-200 Mn Indian internet users will come from.”

The FD foray and NBFC acquisitions signal that Amazon Pay is strengthening its financial services bet. However, it feels that the company flows in sync with the current.

Take, for example, its UPI bet. The company entered the UPI market three years after the launch of the UPI. Today, it has slipped out of the top 10 in the UPI rankings, losing ground to BHIM and WhatsApp. 

Then, its entry into BNPL wasn’t timely. Similar is the case with FDs.

That said, it is hard to ignore how tightly Amazon guards its customers and ecosystem. It has consistently expanded its offerings — from online shopping to Prime deliveries and from video to groceries and financial services. With this, the company ensures that users rarely leave its platform for another app. 

“We are very long-term focussed on building this in India. When we unlock more customer value and business value, the economic value will follow.” Amazon Pay’s top executive concluded.

All in all, Amazon Pay’s fintech journey may not have been the fastest, but it has been steady. 

Rather than chasing early dominance in UPI, BNPL or deposits, the company has focused on building distribution strength and ecosystem stickiness. 

However, competitive pressure remains, as timing has not been its strongest suit. For now, the real test lies in converting its 120 Mn-plus user base into deeper financial relationships. Can it turn its scale into fintech dominance?

[Edited By Shishir Parasher]

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