It’s time to build for a new India.
India created a global standard with UPI and unbundling payments, the language of commerce. It’s now time to fundamentally disrupt commerce with ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce).
The Antler ONDC platform, created in collaboration with FIDE (Foundation for Interoperability in Digital Economy) and ONDC, is developed to supercharge venture creation on ONDC. Applications are open now.
Build for Bharat
To create impact at scale and unlock the game-changing potential of open protocols, ONDC, Antler and Google have identified 9 key problem statements for founders across reverse logistics, last mile hyperlocal, order and inventory management for grocery, financial services and data-as-a-service.
These problem statements are whitespace opportunities for founders to build large businesses and tackle the diverse challenges in digital commerce today. ‘Build for Bharat’ provides a unique platform for aspiring founders and early teams to work on these problem statements and build for a bigger, broader and more inclusive E-commerce universe in India.
Selected teams will receive an equity-free grant of INR 50 lakhs from ONDC, up to $100K from Google and the opportunity to join Antler Residency for additional funding of INR 2 crores for 9% equity.
Deadline for application submission: 5th January’24.
Read on to know more on Build for Bharat and apply.
An $80 billion opportunity to reimagine commerce.
840 million Indians are online today. UPI is on track to do 1 billion transactions per day. However, digital commerce is at about 6-7% GMV (Gross Market Value) of overall commerce in India and only ~180 million consumers use any form of digital commerce.
ONDC promises to change the way India transacts online, bringing the next 500 million+ consumers and 90 million+ MSMEs online. Projected to create over $80 billion in value over the next 5 years and $200 billion over a decade, ONDC is India's next startup catalyst.
The Antler ONDC platform
The first and only venture ecosystem focused on ONDC for founders in India, this platform brings together capital, content and community to help entrepreneurs create businesses and succeed on the open protocol.
Learn more about the recently launched ‘Build on Bharat’, an ONDC x Antler x Google collaboration to build venture scale businesses on ONDC: www.buildforbharat.com
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The platform offers pre-seed capital of INR 2 crores for 9% equity.
An extension of our founders’ teams: we don’t launch and leave. We are here to maximize their success for the entire life cycle of the company. We have the ability to do follow-on investments from Seed to Series C through Antler India Fund and Antler’s $285 million growth fund (Antler Elevate)
Additionally, via the Build for Bharat initiative, selected teams receive an equity free grant of INR 50 lakhs from ONDC and up to $100K from Google along with cloud credits.
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The platform offers best-in-class content designed and curated for founders to explore the evolving ONDC landscape.
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The platform supports early-stage founders with a curated community, providing access to experts, operators, and key network participants like Namma Yatri, Plotch.ai, SellerApp, and Magicpin. The community offers problem-solving sessions and office hours with leaders such as Dr. Pramod Varma, Vibhor Jain, and Abey Zacharia in the digital public infrastructure ecosystem. Access masterclasses, brainstorming sessions, investor interactions with the possibility to fast track to the Antler India Residency.
The driving force behind the initiative
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Nandan Nilekani
Co-founder, FIDE; Co-founder and non-executive Chairman, Infosys
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Dr. Pramod Varma
Co-founder, FIDE; Ex-Chief Architect of Aadhaar and India Stack
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T Koshy
CEO, ONDC
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Sujith Nair
CEO and Co-founder, FIDE
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Rajiv Srivatsa
Partner, Antler in India
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Nitin Sharma
Partner, Antler in India
Build the ‘Internet of Commerce’
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ONDC Canon
Understand, comprehend, and participate in what we believe to be the next stage in the evolution of commerce.
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Monetization from Day Zero
Learn how ONDC scales up to create billion-dollar opportunities for every major kind of participant in the network.
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Why ONDC?
An overview of why ONDC is the innovation we need to take India’s e-commerce into its next stage of growth and evolution.
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Antler's Thesis on ONDC
A comprehensive report on India's next unicorn catalyst with inputs from industry leaders and founders building on ONDC.
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What is ONDC?
This deck explains ONDC from the perspective of pipelines, platforms, and protocols and what makes it unique.
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Investing in Plotch.ai
Awarded the best technology company by ONDC, Plotch.ai helps enterprises join ONDC with the fastest go-to-market.
Learn how startups are pioneering the ONDC wave
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Namma Yatri
A ride-hailing platform on ONDC that clocked over 5.5 million rides in less than a year of its launch and generated over 10 million USD in earnings for auto drivers.
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Bitsila
Making the Indian e-commerce market more accessible and efficient, Bitsila’s ONDC first platform allows businesses of all sizes to list their products and services on ONDC.
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Bech
Bech enables businesses to join ONDC and digitize their catalog for listing, compare prices, design daily offers, and implement volumetric pricing.
Build alongside the top 1% in ONDC.
Sign up to join a curated community of ONDC enthusiasts and builders. If you’re tinkering with multiple ideas, building your team or want to dive deeper into the ONDC ecosystem, send us your details.