12 Unicorns, over 125 startups commit to onboarding ONDC

ONDC facilitates 7.22 mn transactions in April 2024, onboards over 5 lakh sellers

Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) organised the ‘ONDC Startup Mahotsav’, a first of its kind event, on 17th May 2024 at Vanijya Bhawan, New Delhi. The event symbolized the celebration and collaboration of two of DPIIT’s flagship initiatives – the Startup India initiative and Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).

Secretary, DPIIT, Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh, underlined the Government's unwavering commitment to nurturing and encouraging ecosystem for startup growth and innovation. He said, “The ONDC Startup Mahotsav is an inflexion point for startups in India to leverage the opportunities unlocked by ONDC. The network has rapidly grown and matured over the past one and a half years, and today’s session reflects both the DPIIT’s and industry’s commitment to democratising digital commerce in India.”

The event witnessed participation of around 5,000 startups in hybrid mode. Over 125 ecosystem stakeholders including startups, unicorns and high growth businesses such as EaseMyTrip, Of Business, Winzo, Livs pace, Global Bees, Pristyn Care, Cars24, Physics Wallah, Policy Bazaar, and Zerodha, signed Letter of Intent (LoI) during the event. These LoIs signify the potential of ONDC and the eagerness of leading startups of the country to collaborate with the platform.

Joint Secretary, DPIIT, Shri Sanjiv, emphasised on the vision of the Government for the continuous collaboration between the startups and the ONDC. He said, “Startups can play a pivotal role in ONDC ecosystem by driving innovation, fostering competition and enhancing consumer choice. More than 125 startups have committed to onboard to ONDC network in today’s event reflects the excitement and momentum of the national initiative”.

MD & CEO, ONDC, Shri. T. Koshy said, "The ONDC Startup Mahotsav marks a pivotal moment in India's digital transformation journey. By fostering collaboration and innovation within our ecosystem, we are empowering startups to redefine the rules of the game in e-commerce”.

The ‘ONDC Startup Mahotsav’ is a unique collaboration between the ONDC and the Startup India initiative. More than 5 lakh sellers have been onboarded on the platform, of which more than 70% are small or medium sized sellers. In April 2024, ONDC facilitated around 7.22 million transactions. To realise this, the ‘ONDC Startup Mahotsav’ was organized. With an effective association between the startups and the ONDC, a holistic growth of both the initiatives, the economy at large and opportunities to grow at scale are being unlocked.

Insightful panel discussions on subjects as ‘Building a collaborative future of Indian E-Commerce’, ‘ONDC - Startup Success Story’ and ‘Driving Startup Growth through ONDC’ dwelled on the areas of mutual collaboration and the immense potential for startups and emerging businesses to expand and scale-up harnessing the network of ONDC. Distinguished speakers including Member, Competition Commission of India, Shri Anil Agrawal; Joint Secretary, DPIIT, Shri E. Srinivas; Secretary General, Quality Council of India, Shri. Chakravarthy T Kannan; Advisory Council Member, ONDC, Smt. Anjali Bansal; DMD, SIDBI, Shri Sudatta Mandal; Co-founder, Ease My Trip, Shri Rikant Pittie; and Co-founder, Winzo, Shri Paavan Nanda shared their views and thoughts on these engaging discussions. A ‘Masterclass on Enabling Startups on ONDC’ was also organised to handhold and mentor startups for on-boarding and effective utilisation of ONDC.

The Government launched the Startup India initiative on 16th January 2016 with the intent of supporting entrepreneurs and building a robust startup ecosystem in the country. From around 300 startups in 2016, today India is amongst the leading startup hubs with more than 1.3 lakh DPIIT recognised startups. These are operating in more than 55 sectors, bringing innovation across domains. The startups have created more than 13 lakh direct jobs in the country.

Another marquee initiative of the Government, the ONDC was launched in 2021 as a first-of-its-kind protocol, with a mission to democratize digital commerce. Today, ONDC is fully operational across India, with the digital infrastructure completed and rolled out to businesses and the public at large. ONDC lowers entry-barriers to digital commerce, and provides level playing field for all e-commerce players, especially the small-scale businesses and those who have been digitally excluded. Startups are innovators with agile working cultures providing good quality products and services at competitive prices. Startups are a crucial pillar for achieving the goal of self-reliance in the country. Creating and discovering markets is a challenge for startups that can be addressed through the ONDC platform, highlighting the significance of this collaboration.

Over the years, a conducive environment has been created for entrepreneurs in the country. The Government itself has introduced many innovative reforms and initiatives. ONDC is one such innovative initiative of the Government to democratize e-commerce, can now play an instrumental role in further strengthening the startup ecosystem of the country. This grand Mahotsav is the beginning and the first step towards realizing this fruitful collaboration.

Digital commerce democratization: government-backed ONDC event drives startup onboarding and market access expansion for small businesses. The release describes the ONDC Startup Mahotsav as a government initiative to integrate startups with the Open Network for Digital Commerce, highlighting Letters of Intent for onboarding, panel discussions and a masterclass to support startup onboarding and utilisation, and operational metrics showing substantial seller onboarding-predominantly small and medium enterprises-and large transaction volumes as indicators of the platform's maturity and potential to expand market access, foster competition, and lower digital-entry barriers for underserved businesses.