Uber, Paytm invest 60 crore each in ONDC as usage surges

Uber and Paytm each invested 60 crore in the Open Network for Digital Commerce, strengthening their ties to a government-backed platform that was built to loosen the grip of dominant marketplaces and make digital commerce more open. The move underscored a sharp strategic shift: instead of standing outside ONDC, two of India’s most recognizable consumer-tech companies are now helping finance the network from within as it gains real traffic in mobility and ticketing.

The round raised 220 crore in total from Zoho Corporation, Uber, Paytm-parent One97 Communications and BSE Technologies, with Zoho contributing 70 crore and BSE Technologies putting in 30 crore. The allotment was formalized through a board resolution on May 12, 2026, and involved 2.2 crore equity shares with a face value of 100 each. ONDC is also seeking another 210 crore from existing and new strategic investors as part of its ONDC 2.0 push, a sign that the network is trying to move from policy-backed experiment to scaled digital infrastructure.

The numbers behind the investment explain why the platform is drawing private capital. Uber said its metro ticketing service was already live in five Indian cities, and more than 10 million metro rides had been booked through the Uber app via ONDC. Paytm said it was enabling more than 300,000 metro and bus ticket bookings a day across 21 cities, while also facilitating 218 million transactions in FY26. Those figures show ONDC is no longer confined to abstract talk of interoperability. It is becoming part of daily transport behavior in a country where ticketing, mobility and payments are increasingly converging on smartphone-led interfaces.

ONDC itself has said it was incorporated as a non-profit Section 8 company in December 2021, incubated at the Quality Council of India, with Protean eGov Technologies as a co-founder. It launched in April 2022 with the stated aim of creating a level playing field for sellers, buyers and service providers through open protocols and interoperability. Its public dashboard says the network is live in 616+ cities, has 7.64 lakh sellers and service providers, and spans 26 live domains, stretching well beyond retail into mobility, logistics and financial services.

The funding comes as ONDC tries to prove that open digital infrastructure can also sustain commercial scale. Its FY25 net loss narrowed to 147.13 crore from 195.6 crore a year earlier, while revenue more than doubled to 33.41 crore. Vibhor Jain, appointed managing director and chief executive effective April 7, 2026, now faces the core question raised by the new backing: whether a network designed to decentralize commerce can also become a profitable platform without ceding too much influence to the private giants that are now buying in.