bangalore global etailing behemoth amazon and n r narayanamurthys family office catamaran ventures have floated a joint venture to help small and medium businesses smbs join the online bandwagon taking advantage of a burgeoning number of online shoppers cataraman holds a majority 51 in the jv taurus business and trade services that was incorporated in new delhi in 2012 it has two active directors harish bhardwaj and kuldeep singh bisht catamaran and amazon asia formalized a partnership in may to help offline sellers and smbs in india to take advantage of the potential of the fast growing online customer base in the country the partnership will focus accelerate and scale the inclusion of smbs into the digital economy said the spokesperson of taurus business and trade services the jv entity will equip smb sellers with online tools and help them gain a larger customer base for their existing merchandise that will increase revenues and footfalls for smb retailers the spokesperson said however the nature of the jv is unclearwhether its to beef up backend delivery operations or if it is a structure created to get into direct ecommerce at present the government does not permit fdi in ecommerce some sources said the jv could be a backdoor entry to foreign players in the multibrand space or it could even accelerate the partnership to spearhead offline store launches in the near future till the time fdi is allowed in ecommerce its a barrier for any foreign company to set up an outfit some ecommerce players have sidestepped in some form or the other by having ambient relationships with indian partners said devangshu dutta ceo of retail consultancy firm third eyesight last year catamaran ventures exited from its rs 200 crore investment in manipal global education services selling its stake back to the promoters of the company catamaran has also invested in gurgaonbased hector beverages that makes energy drink tzinga an email sent to catamaran on how the entity is structured didnt elicit a response