Amazon launches UK B2B marketplace for startups

The platform is called Launchpad and it started in the US in July, 2015. Amazon will partner venture capital groups including Andreessen Horowitz and crowdfunding platforms such as Crowdcube, to discover fledgling tech groups, ft.com reports.

The online retailer said it would promote their products on a dedicated part of the Amazon UK website, providing marketing support, manage inventory and help distribute products through its delivery network — while taking an undeclared cut of the start-ups’ sales.

Christopher North, managing director of Amazon.co.uk, said the move was dedicated to help small companies in the run-up to Christmas, 2015, while displaying products that would otherwise be missed by its millions of consumers. Among the products that will be available on the website are the Kano children’s computer kit, the Wileyfox 4G smartphone and iKettle, a WiFi-enabled kettle.

Many of the products chosen for the website will have raised money on crowdfunding websites, such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo. These websites have a dedicated audience, with millions willing to pay for products at a conceptual stage before they are manufactured, helping to provide the early capital to get ideas off the ground, although such websites cannot provide the size of Amazon’s customer base, which these groups need to reach as they become mass market.