Financial services platform airpay joins ONDC

Integrated financial services platform airpay on Thursday said it has gone live on the Open Network For Digital Commerce (ONDC).

This will enable airpay's 'vyaapaaris' to have access to an array of local businesses offering multiple products and services on ONDC to consumers, it said in a release.

Presently, airpay vyaapaaris offer banking and financial services to more than 60 million consumers in 561 districts and over 7,000 villages in 36 states and union territories, it said.

"Given the democratised nature of an Open Network, it levels the playing field for small and medium enterprises. ONDC also enables increased trade of locally manufactured goods and local sellers, thereby multiplying the investment and production of MSMEs," Kunal Jhunjhunwala, Founder and Managing Director of airpay, said.

The company, started by Kunal Jhunjhunwala—Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's nephew, said the initiative will enable ONDC to understand and implement key consumer and partner learnings.

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Recently, several companies including Razorpay, Magicpin and BigBasket joined the ecommerce network. PhonePe launched its own ONDC-enabled app Pincode last month.

Thampy Koshy, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ONDC, said that with airpay's assisted ecommerce model, it is one step closer to achieving this goal and is looking forward to bringing formal financial services to the unbanked population of the country.

Government-promoted ONDC aims to promote an open platform for all aspects of e-commerce retail. It would help small retailers expand their business through ecommerce mediums and reduce the dominance of giants in the sector.