Overview of ONDC’s Strategic Funding

The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), a government-backed initiative under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), has announced a major capital infusion of Rs 430 crore. The funding round is designed to accelerate the network’s evolution into ‘ONDC 2.0’, focusing on sovereign digital infrastructure and advanced technological integration.

Strategic Investor Consortium

The round is characterized by a high-profile mix of financial institutions, tech giants, and industry incumbents:

  • Zoho: Lead investor, contributing Rs 70 crore.
  • Strategic Tech & Fintech: Uber and Paytm (Rs 60 crore each), BSE Technologies (Rs 30 crore).
  • Financial Institutions: State Bank of India (Rs 60 crore), Punjab National Bank (Rs 30 crore), National Stock Exchange (Rs 30 crore).
  • Enterprise Partners: Amul and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (Rs 30 crore each).

Scaling ONDC 2.0

The capital will be deployed to support the transition to the next iteration of the network. Key focus areas include:

  • AI & Agentic Commerce: Leveraging AI to streamline commerce operations and customer interactions.
  • Digital Infrastructure: Development of projects like ‘DigiCatalog’ to standardize and scale network interoperability.
  • Market Expansion: Increasing adoption across key sectors and improving quality assurance for participants.

Traction and Market Significance

ONDC has shown significant momentum, processing 218 million transactions in FY26. The network is fundamentally designed to reduce entry barriers for businesses by providing an interoperable alternative to proprietary e-commerce platforms, shifting power toward an open-ecosystem model.

Founder Takeaways

For founders building in the commerce and SaaS space, the ONDC 2.0 pivot signals a shift toward ‘agentic’ commerce—where AI does not just facilitate search but executes transactions. Integrating with ONDC protocols is increasingly becoming a strategic mandate for startups looking to tap into a government-supported, massive-scale interoperable infrastructure.