ONDC facilitates 7.22 million transactions in April 2024, onboards over 500,000 sellers
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) organized the first-ever ‘ONDC Startup Mahotsav’ on May 17 at Vanijya Bhawan in New Delhi. This landmark event showcased the synergy between two of DPIIT’s flagship initiatives—Startup India and the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
Secretary, DPIIT, 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, 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.
Joint Secretary, DPIIT, 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, 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.
Helping Startups find Markets
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.
