ONDC taps rural fintechs to take e-commerce beyond large cities

Efforts by the Indian government to reimagine how the country shops online just took a massive step forward thanks to some unlikely allies. According to two sources with knowledge of the matter, officials from the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce met with business correspondents and rural-focused fintechs to explore how these entities might further the government’s larger open commerce plans.

Some of these fintechs, such as Spice Money and PayNearby, have already embarked on a pilot to onboard merchants for the ONDC network. Still more are expected to start their own efforts soon, while others are adopting a wait and watch approach before jumping on the bandwagon.

“The meeting was held under the aegis of the Business Correspondent Federation of India (BCFI), and we were mostly explained how ONDC works. We spoke about ways in which we can bring in synergies between the open protocol and our operations,” said the founder of a fintech startup who was present at the meeting.