SaaS major Zoho has invested ₹70 Cr (about $7.3 Mn) in the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to support India’s digital commerce infrastructure and increase digital commerce adoption among MSMEs.

The investment comes as ONDC continues to deepen its role in India’s digital public infrastructure push, which aims to make ecommerce more open and accessible for small businesses. It aims to help them reach more customers and reduce the dependence on large tech platforms.

Notably, Zoho has been working closely with ONDC across several commerce and finance products, including Vikra, Zoho ERP, Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory, and Zoho Commerce. These tools help MSMEs digitise operations, manage inventory, streamline accounting, and connect with customers on the ONDC network.

ONDC, a protocol launched by the DPIIT in 2021, moved away from the platform centric models like Amazon and Flipkart, where sellers operate within closed ecosystems, to an open decentralised network. This allows any buyer application to connect with any seller, regardless of the app they use.

It counts Quality Council of India and Protean eGov Technologies among its founding members. Investors in the network include Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, SIDBI and ICICI Bank.

ONDC claims to have facilitated 21.8 Cr transactions across segments such as retail, logistics, mobility and financial services during FY26. 

Currently operational in 616 cities, it has onboarded more than 7.64 Lakh sellers and service providers. The last time ONDC publicly disclosed its monthly transaction numbers was in May 2025, when it processed more than 1.6 Cr orders.

However, the retail transaction volumes on the protocol have been under pressure over the past year as the heavily funded companies continue to expand. 

Retail transactions on ONDC, which include food delivery, grocery, fashion and electronics, reportedly fell to 4.6 Mn in February 2025 from a peak of 6.5 Mn monthly orders in October 2024. It is yet to disclose the latest numbers. 

Buyer-side apps such as Paytm, Magicpin and Ola also reduced discounts on ONDC orders after the network scaled back incentive payouts to participants.

In the past, ONDC DigiDukaan claimed to onboarded more than 10,000 kirana stores within a few months of launch, while it said order volumes from farmers, artisans and rural sellers grew 11-fold in FY26. 

In logistics, it has secured some footing. Its FIFO fleet allocation model has claimed to have scaled 50X within six months. The network has onboarded logistics players such as Delhivery, Shadowfax, Loadshare, Porter and Amazon Logistics.

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