Narayana Murthy To Enter Into E-commerce Business In Partnership With Amazon

NR Narayana Murthy, who is stepping down as the executive chairman of IT company Infosys, is gearing up for his next venture. Murthy is giving final shape to his plans of foraying into the e-commerce business in partnership with Amazon. He will make his investments through his firm Catamaran Ventures.

Arjun Ramegowda Narayanswamy, who heads Catamaran Ventures said, "Catamaran is partnering with Amazon Asia to offer services that help offline sellers and Server Message Blocks (SMBs) in India to get online and to take advantage of the fast-growing online customer base in the country."

"NR Narayana Murthy does not have a board role in any of our investments," he added.

Since FDI in e-commerce is not allowed in India, Amazon and Catamaran have reportedly consulted some legal firms and come up with a mechanism to bypass the FDI restrictions. Amazon and Catamaran are in talks to form a joint venture for the back end operations. The joint venture will be a holding company in which Catamaran will hold 51% stake. As it will be an Indian entity, its subsidiary will be called an Indian company and this subsidiary will roll out the e-commerce business.

Amazon had entered India last year as a third-party marketplace operator.