ONDC Attracts INR 220 Crore Funding from Zoho, Uber, Paytm and BSE

According to a regulatory filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has received INR 220 crore in funding from several sources. These sources include software business Zoho, mobility platform Uber, fintech startup Paytm, and BSE Technologies, the digital solutions arm of the stock exchange operator. Uber and Paytm each put in INR 60 crore, while Zoho put in INR 70 crore.

Investment of INR 30 crore was made by BSE Technologies into the digital commerce network that is supported by the government. New and existing strategic investors are expected to contribute an additional INR 210 crore to ONDC. Fundraising will help with the organisation's transition to ONDC 2.0, according to a previous regulatory filing.

How ONDC will Utilise the Proceeds?

As part of its ONDC 2.0 plan, the company announced that it is aiming to attract capital to transform the network from a proof-of-concept to a value-creating national digital commerce infrastructure. The business went on to say that current investors and potential new strategic partners will each contribute to this fundraising effort, which will support many important growth initiatives. A few examples of these expansion plans are DigiCatalog, the National Infrastructure for Cataloguing, and the use of artificial intelligence and agentic commerce to remove obstacles to participation. The National Stock Exchange, CSC e-Governance Services, and other financial institutions are among the current investors in ONDC.

Other current investors include Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, and ICICI Bank. Protean eGov Technologies and the Quality Council of India were its original members. According to a press release issued by Uber on June 2nd, the investment expands upon the company's previous partnership with ONDC and seeks to open up new possibilities in network-based mobility.

The company announced that as a component of this investment, Uber will collaborate closely with ONDC to increase accessibility to various forms of transportation, including interfaces with public transportation. In addition, it will be enhancing its logistics capabilities to cater to the needs of network firms and independent earners even better. It is interesting to note that the ride-hailing service Namma Yatri, a competitor of Uber's, also runs on ONDC.

ONDC Surpasses 3 Lakh Daily Ticket Bookings

In a press statement released on 1 June, the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), which is funded by the government, announced that it is currently booking over 300,000 metro and bus tickets per day across its network. According to the release, ONDC is helping to speed up the widespread adoption of public transport by making it possible for users to buy tickets for the metro and buses through the applications they currently use on a daily basis.

This comes at a time when ONDC has processed more than 450 million transactions in various industries, including retail, B2B, public transportation, tourism, banking, and logistics. The three lines of the Mumbai Metro, as well as Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kochi, Pune, and Nagpur, are now accessible through ONDC for purchasing metro tickets. By streamlining ticket distribution, reconciliation, and settlement processes and assisting in lowering operational and technical expenses related to maintaining multiple integrations, the platform claims to be making a positive impact on transport firms.