5 hours ago Amazon India on Thursday announced a $250 million venture fund for small and medium businesses (SMBs) on the first day of its flagship event Smbhav. The Amazon Smbhav Fund will focus on helping digitise SMBs and drive technology innovations in the agriculture and healthcare sectors. Amazon’s incoming CEO Andy Jassy announced the new venture fund at the event and said, “Small and medium businesses are the engine and lifeblood of economies.” The fund will primarily invest in Indian startups working on automating and digitising business operations. Amazon said another priority area is helping agri-tech companies build farm-to-fork models and reduce food waste, and assist the healthcare sector in adopting AI solutions and reducing administrative load. As part of the Venture Fund, the e-commerce giant has announced an investment in M1xchange, an invoice discounting marketplace for MSMEs.