Ride-hailing platform Uber on Monday said that it will soon enter the B2B logistics market in the country by extending its partnership with Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
Following the partnership, the businesses on ONDC network will get access to logistic services through Uber’s 1.4 million driver network. However, Uber did not reveal a specific timeline for the launch.
The development comes just days after Uber expanded its consumer logitics offerings by launching Courier XL, which allows customers to deliver goods weighing up to 750 kg via three and four-wheelers.
With the latest announcement, Uber will be competing with the likes of Temasek-backed Shiprocket, Shadowfax, recent unicorn Porter and Tiger Global-backed Loadshare.
Uber already offers its regular courier package delivery service on two-wheelers.
The new service would initially enable food deliveries for businesses operating on ONDC. However, it will be expanded to e-commerce, grocery, pharmacy, and even healthcare logistics.
According to a complany employee, this will be a white-label service and will operate like Uber Direct in USA. However, it will be limited to businesses available on the ONDC network.
On Monday, the company also announced the rollout of metro ticketing on its app, powered by ONDC, starting with Delhi Metro. Uber users in the national capital will be able to plan their metro journeys, purchase QR-based tickets, and access real-time transit information, within the Uber app.
Three more cities across India are slated to go live in 2025.
This move follows an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2024 during Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s visit to India, where Uber committed to collaborating with ONDC to advance the reach and impact of India’s digital public goods.
“India has taken an impressive leap in building population scale technology through its Digital Public Infrastructure like ONDC and we are thrilled to integrate with them to bring metro ticketing to the Uber app, bringing us one step closer to our vision of being a one-stop shop for mobility needs,” said Praveen Neppalli Naga, Chief Technology Officer, Uber.
Vibhor Jain, Acting CEO and COO at ONDC added, “As a global platform, Uber’s initial enablement of metro ticketing and logistics unlocks new possibilities – from seamless multimodal journeys to unifying a fragmented logistics ecosystem.”