Paytm's Rohit Lohia likely to join ONDC as Chief Business Officer

Ondc23

Government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is likely to appoint Rohit Lohia, currently Senior Vice President at Paytm (One97 Communications), as its new Chief Business Officer (CBO) of the retail business. The decision comes amid top-level management changes within the network, sources aware of the developments told Moneycontrol.

At Paytm Lohia has been involved in strategy, growth, and business operations. He also holds board roles at Paytm Money and QorQl.

The move follows a wave of high-profile departures at ONDC, Founder-CEO Thampy Koshy stepped down in April 2025, after three years at the helm, handing over responsibilities to an eight-member executive committee.  Meanwhile, the former CBO Shireesh Joshi had resigned in March this year, and independent director Arvind Gupta recently exited as well.

ONDC declined to comment on the CBO appointment. Paytm did not respond to Moneycontrol's queries.

To steady the ship, ONDC elevated COO Vibhor Jain as Acting CEO.

Lohia's appointment is coming at a time when the network is facing a challenging time for its retail business. According to the company's open data reviewed by Moneycontrol, ONDC clocked 17.94 million transactions in August 2025, up 2.7 per cent from July. Mobility and logistics drove the increase with 11.81 million rides and 2.35 million logistics orders.

Retail, however, remained weak at 3.76 million transactions, down sharply from 6.1 million in August 2024.

ONDC categorises its transactions into three buckets: retail, logistics, and mobility. While retail includes food, fashion, and electronics orders placed via buyer apps, logistics refers largely to delivery fulfilment, and mobility includes ride-hailing and public transit ticketing.

Given that retail was once ONDC’s primary growth engine, its steady decline marks a sharp reversal.