12 Unicorns, over 125 startups commit to onboarding ONDC

Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) organised the ‘ONDC Startup Mahotsav’, a first of its kind event, on May 17, 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, Rajesh Kumar Singh, underlined the Government's 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, OfBusiness, Winzo, Livspace, GlobalBees, Pristyn Care, Cars24, Physics Wallah, PolicyBazaar, 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.

MD and CEO of ONDC, 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 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.

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.