In early 2023, restaurant body National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) was gung-ho about the Open Network For Digital Commerce (ONDC) and so were other retail associations, but two years later, ONDC does not seem to have moved the needle too much.

The buzz was so loud around ONDC in 2023 that various consumer and payments apps such as Paytm, Magicpin, Ola and others joined ONDC as a buyer app, looking to break into the Swiggy-Zomato duopoly.

But that noise is all but a whimper today. Amid a leadership crisis that has seen CEO Thampy Koshy stepping down this week after CBO Shireesh Joshi had quit earlier, ONDC is going through a transition. The number of orders reducing significantly since last year, the government backed network is struggling to meet its milestones.

So let’s catch up with ONDC this Sunday and where it is headed. Will the government-backed network fulfil its promise and potential? Before we find out, here’s a look at the top stories from our newsroom this week:

• Ecom Express Derailed: Once valued at $850 Mn and gearing up for a public listing, Ecom Express has now been acquired by rival Delhivery for just $165 Mn, an 80% value erosion. What went wrong?
• SaaS’s Inflection Point: Indian SaaS startups raised over $2.1 Bn in 2024, up 31% YoY. A growing chunk of this capital is flowing toward companies that are not just building on AI, but being built by AI. Behind this investment flurry
• Behind Aisle’s Boom: Info Edge-owned Aisle’s revenue soared by nearly 146% in two years and the dating app reduced its cash burn by 42% this year. What exactly turned things around for this Tinder and Bumble rival?

From Highs To Lows

ONDC, backed by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), was introduced in December 2021 and launched for public use in 2023. It was seen as an alternative to the marketplaces and aggregators who were dictating terms for sellers. Instead, the ONDC offered an incentive-based structure for apps and an open network of sellers that everyone on the network could access.

That beginning was great — mammoth discounts rained on food delivery on ONDC, almost 50% cheaper than aggregators like Zomato and Swiggy. The social media buzz pegged ONDC as a Zomato and Swiggy killer.

More than two years down the line, today, the network has crossed 200 Mn lifetime transactions as of March 2025 with a significant increase in annual transactions volume, however did ONDC prove to be a Swiggy, Zomato killer or has it been the other way round?

ONDC, which was tipped to be a one-stop shop for all things digital commerce, is now struggling to compete with well-capitalised startups in food delivery and quick commerce segments.

And the resignation of CEO Koshy this month is another blow. Post his exit, an executive committee has been formed to take things forward, led by Nitin Nair who heads logistics, mobility, travel segments.

“It is a seven member committee which also has Vibhor Jain who is the head of network governance and chief operating officer and several vertical heads as members. This executive committee has been tasked........

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