SoftBank-backed Meesho, an e-commerce platform, on Wednesday said it would be integrating with the government’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). The company did not, however, provide details on the categories it would make available on the portal.

Over the past months, several companies such as Paytm, PhonePe, Microsoft, Zoho and Dunzo have joined the ONDC, the government’s e-commerce effort.

T Koshy, chief executive officer, ONDC, had earlier said more Reliance Industries-backed companies are likely to join the platform, and e-commerce majors Amazon and Flipkart have also either expressed interest in joining the platform or have already begun integrating with it.

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As per the ONDC’s website, Delhivery, ITC Store, Snapdeal, Grab and Ekart are all in advanced stages of integrating with the portal.

Meesho will first pilot the launch in Bengaluru and gradually roll it out to other locations over the coming months, it said.

The e-commerce portal joining the platform will further ONDC’s goal of reaching every small seller since Meesho has a significant presence in the tier 2 and beyond regions.

About 80% of Meesho’s 1.4 million annual transacting customers are located in tier 2 and beyond cities. Further, about 40% of its 800,000 sellers hail from these regions, the company said.

“With a shared goal to empower small sellers and give a fillip to hyperlocal businesses, the integration will boost our efforts to democratise internet commerce for everyone,” said Vidit Aatrey, founder and CEO, Meesho.

Koshy said: “…Meesho (and) its deep capabilities in small towns will set the network flywheel in motion and take ONDC closer to our goals. E-commerce is still small in India and new-age platforms like Meesho will be strong network participants for ONDC in this journey.”

This comes at a time when Koshy has said eventually e-commerce — as it exists now — with a few large players “will become irrelevant”.

“It’s not only a good intention but also a compulsion that will come to them (the existing marketplaces) to be a part of the ONDC story because of the way their businesses will involve,” Koshy had earlier said.