Amazon’s Axio to offer tailor-made loans for small businesses; Flipkart awaits RBI approval for pay-later offers and consumer loans | Photo credit: Dado Ruvic
Amazon acquired Bengaluru-based non-bank lender Axio earlier this year. Currently, Axio focuses on BNPL and personal loans, but will re-enter small business lending and begin offering cash management solutions.
“We see tremendous room to expand credit growth in India, especially among digitally engaged customers and small businesses outside the top cities,” Mahendra Nerurkar, vice president of emerging markets payments at Amazon, told Reuters.
Aimed at merchants and small businesses
He added that the company would “design tailor-made credit proposals” for merchants and small businesses to improve cash flow management efficiency and unlock capital.
The details of Amazon’s plans have not previously been disclosed.
Flipkart, in which Walmart has about 80 percent stake, registered its non-bank lending arm, Flipkart Finance, in March and is awaiting final approval from the Reserve Bank of India for its business plans.
Flipkart’s offering
Company documents show there are two types of scheduled pay-later offers: free monthly installment loans for online shoppers with terms ranging from 3 to 24 months, and consumer durables loans at interest rates of 18 to 26 percent per year.
Interest rates on consumer durables loans from traditional lenders are typically between 12 and 22 percent.
Flipkart expects to offer these financial products next year, according to a source with direct knowledge of the plans.
The source was not authorized to speak to the media and declined to be identified. Flipkart and the RBI did not respond to requests for comment.
According to data from credit agency CRIF High Mark, India’s consumer lending market has grown from nearly $80 billion in March 2020 to around $212 billion by March 2025, although there have been signs of a slowdown in recent quarters.
Consumer loans include unsecured personal loans, credit cards and consumer durables loans.
Both Amazon and Flipkart operate apps that are among the top 10 platforms used to make payments through India’s Unified Payments Interface.
“There is huge potential for them to make a dent as they own both supply-side and demand-side customer data,” says Rohan Lakhiyar, partner at the financial services risk division of consultancy Grant Thornton Bharat. “But execution will be critical as they move beyond core retail.”
Amazon has also partnered with half a dozen local lenders to offer savings products with a minimum amount of ₹1,000 to customers on its Amazon Pay platform, Nerurkar said.
Published on November 28, 2025
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