Amazon's 12% option in Rappi

Amazon’s note matters less for the $25M of cash than for the distribution lock it signals. Rappi is already built to move groceries, pharmacy, convenience items, and other daily purchases through one dense courier network across Latin America, and Amazon is using that network to put Prime and Amazon Now in front of local users without first building a full last mile operation market by market. The warrant structure ties Amazon’s upside to commercial execution, not just financial ownership.

• Rappi’s model is unusually well suited to this kind of partnership. It already monetizes merchants through commissions and delivery fees, layers on ads and subscriptions, and uses multi category demand to raise order frequency and courier density. That makes it a ready operating layer for Amazon grocery and essentials delivery.
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• The clearest comparable is Amazon’s playbook elsewhere, where it has used partnerships to add local delivery utility to Prime before owning every piece of the stack. In the U.S., Amazon tied Prime to Grubhub. In Mexico, Amazon and Rappi linked Prime benefits to Rappi, then launched Amazon Now with 15 minute delivery of 5,000 plus items.
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• The potential 12% stake is large enough to influence strategy without forcing an acquisition. For Rappi, that brings a global consumer brand, Prime demand, and more order flow into the network. For Amazon, it creates an option on Latin American urban commerce at a time when Rappi says it has reached positive EBITDA and no longer needs new private funding.
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This is heading toward a deeper operating alliance, not a passive minority investment. If Amazon Now keeps expanding across Mexico and Brazil, Rappi can become Amazon’s local speed layer in Latin America, while Amazon becomes the demand engine that helps push Rappi from a delivery app into core commerce infrastructure ahead of a possible late 2026 IPO window.