MUMBAI (Reuters) -Amazon said on Thursday that it has completed the acquisition of Bengaluru-based non-bank lender Axio for an undisclosed amount, securing a direct lending licence in India.

The Reserve Bank of India cleared the deal in June, said Mahendra Nerurkar, Amazon's ( AMZN ) vice president for payments for emerging markets. The deal has been in the works since December.

Axio, a 12-year-old fintech lender, offers financial products and services to both retail consumers and small businesses, focusing on digital credit and money management solutions.

Through Axio, the world's largest online retailer plans to offer a variety of credit products on its platform, including loans on checkout and "multiple new destinations beyond Amazon ( AMZN )," Nerurkar said without elaborating.

"(We are also looking at) inventing new credit products to serve the needs of our customers as well as small and medium businesses."

Most e-commerce platforms in India, including rival Flipkart, offer loans in partnership with banks and non-bank lenders. With a lending licence, Amazon ( AMZN ) will now be able to lend directly - a more lucrative model for the group.

Flipkart secured its non-banking financial company (NBFC) licence in April through its unit Flipkart Finance, allowing it to lend but not accept deposits.

Axio, which has tied up with Amazon ( AMZN ) since 2018 to offer credit and pay-later products, will continue operating as a separate business but become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon ( AMZN ) in India, Nerurkar said.

The firm had a loan book of around 22 billion rupee ($251.4 million) for the quarter ended June, said Gaurav Hinduja, a co-founder at Axio.

The deal will help Amazon ( AMZN ) expand its fintech operations in India, where it has secured approvals to issue payment wallets and sell insurance policies on its online marketplace.

Amazon Pay, its payments unit, was the ninth-largest player by volume on India's unified payments interface channel in July 2025, per data from National Payments Corporation of India.

($1 = 87.5060 Indian rupees)