Axis Bank follows PhonePe, develops new platform for groceries on ONDC

ONDC is currently working with over 26,000 merchants, offering more than 27 lakh products on its network.

Axis Bank, one of India’s largest private banks, is gearing up to launch a new consumer-facing buyers’ platform built on top of India’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) framework as it looks to strengthen its e-commerce forays amid a push from the government for deeper penetration of the open network, which is billed to be the UPI (unified payments interface) of digital commerce.

Axis has already designed the platform and will be launching it as a part of its e-commerce segment called Grab Deals, people aware of the matter told Moneycontrol. The platform will initially have only groceries, but will soon expand to other segments, the people said requesting anonymity. The platform will be going live soon and it will be launched in select cities initially, according to the people. Moneycontrol has seen internal documents of the new application.

“Grab Deals has been a part of Axis for some time now and as a part of this new project, the company is revamping the entire Grab Deals platform. While there’s no separate application for Grab Deals yet, Axis will be launching it soon,” said one of the people quoted above.

“The ONDC for groceries will still remain integrated even after Grab Deals goes live on app stores and going forward, the company might launch a separate app for the ONDC platform, too,” the person added.

Axis Bank’s move to launch a new buyers’ hyperlocal application on ONDC comes just a couple of weeks after Walmart-backed PhonePe, India’s most-valued fintech startup, launched a new application called Pincode with a focus on hyperlocal commerce. Axis Bank is also a shareholder in ONDC and holds roughly 8 percent stake.

Axis Bank did not comment on the story.

Besides PhonePe, fintech unicorn Paytm currently has an ONDC platform integrated into its main application. ONDC is an initiative of the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce.

ONDC’s rollout started with limited pincodes in Bengaluru last September. So far, apart from Paytm and PhonePe, IDFC, Mystore, Craftsvilla and Spice Money are all buyer-side applications.

The platform takes no money from the government but is funded by banks including State Bank of India, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Punjab National Bank, among others.

In March, ONDC expanded into mobility as well apart from food, grocery and e-commerce, as the network onboarded Namma Yatri onto the platform. While two cities are in ONDC’s beta stage, 181 are in the alpha stage.

Earlier this month, at a press conference in New Delhi, T Koshy, CEO of ONDC said the platform has been able to find 37 network participants. The platform is currently working with over 26,000 merchants, offering more than 27 lakh products on its network.