In a tweet on Tuesday, the Open Network For Digital Commerce (ONDC) protocol announced the addition of Tata-backed grocery retailer Bigbasket to its platform. 

This comes shortly after Walmart-backed PhonePe released Pincode, its own hyperlocal seller app on ONDC. Aside from PhonePe, Paytm, Meesho, Mystore, Craftsvilla, Magicpin, and Spice Money are presently available on the app's buyer side.

The ONDC protocol, which is now in beta testing in Bengaluru and Meerut, claims to have over 25,000 merchants and over 24 lakh products on the platform in categories including as food and beverages, grocery, home and décor, beauty and personal care, fashion, and electronics.

It was recently announced that Axis Bank has also developed a new grocery platform using ONDC. The protocol has yet to be embraced by ecommerce companies such as Flipkart, Amazon, and Google, which have a big database of sellers and small enterprises. 

The protocol links buyers on the buying app to local merchants via seller apps. The protocol also includes possibilities for technology suppliers to join the ecosystem, as well as logistics businesses to fulfil orders. 

ONDC plans to raise additional capital for operations from the BSE, NSE, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC, SBI, SIDBI, NABARD, Bank of Baroda, CSCeGovernance Services, UCO Bank, Central Depository Services, ICICI Bank, NSDL, Bank of India, and Punjab National Bank after being registered as a non-profit in December 2021 with Quality Council of India and Protean eGov Technologies.