The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) organised the ‘ONDC Startup Mahotsav’ on Friday at Vanijya Bhawan here.

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).

At the event, around 5,000 startups participated 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.

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.”

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.

Joint Secretary, DPIIT, Sanjiv Singh 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”.

As per the information shared by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, over 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 ministry said in a statement.

Further at the event, 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.