amazon has established a joint venture with the ashok patni group to strengthen its customer service unit or call centre targeted at supporting the growing number of locallanguage customers as the online retail giant expands deeper into india the joint venture in which patni holds a 51 stake could also set up a subsidiary that will act as a seller on the amazon india platform similar to the cloudtail jv with infosys founder nr narayana murthy said two persons briefed on the matter frontizo business services has already started operations in bengaluru with an investment of rs 197 crore from amazon asia pacific holdings and patnis zodiac wealth advisors llp since june according to ministry of corporate affairs mca filings seen by et ashok patni was one of the promoters of patni computers which was acquired by buyout major apax partners in 2011 vinod kumar who was until recently a senior manager at amazon india is ceo of frontizo kumar had spent a decade at capgeminis bpo unit till 2015 as a director before joining amazon india while amazon india declined to comment a spokesperson for frontizo business services confirmed the development adding that the mission of the venture is to transform how india buys it is estimated that there are more than 450 million customers with internet access in india only a handful of them shop today through ecommerce sites majority of these new customers will come from small towns and rural areas and will have different needs like vernacular language support and alternate operating models to serve them said the spokesperson in an email frontizo offers multichannel customer support services including email assistance customer outreach and contact on the phone and chats the spokesperson said the joint venture has five directors three representatives of patni and two of amazon according to the mca filing amazons director of category management sameer khetarpal and general manager rajarshi guin are on the board of frontizo others include ajay mahipal who heads investments at patnis healthcare venture currae healthtech fund and essaji vahanvati former partner at law firm azb partners and son of former ag goolam vahanvati the development comes as amazon is actively expanding by tying up with prominent business houses in india giving them an exposure to the ecommerce space while also bringing on board potentially large sellers amazon said on the weekend it will pick up a 5 stake in shoppers stop and also signed a commercial agreement under which the retailer is expected to become a seller on the platform et reported in july that amazon is in talks with fastmoving consumer goods major daburs promoters the burman family to set up another cloudtaillike joint venture bid to improve positioning the partnerships that amazon is setting out to forge are less about capital and more about what the partnerships do to improve their positioning in india said vinod murali managing partner at venture debt firm alteria capital shoppers stop has the right offline expertise patni group understands