Antler Launches ONDC-focused Venture Platform With Nandan Nilekani, FIDE

Antler in India, an early-stage venture capital firm, on Wednesday unveiled the country's first venture platform dedicated to the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). 

In partnership with Nandan Nilekani, FIDE (Beckn Protocol), and ONDC, the Antler ONDC platform will look to unite capital, content, and community resources to empower entrepreneurs in establishing successful businesses within the open protocol ecosystem.

This platform introduces a multi-faceted approach to support startup founders at various stages of development. For startups with ready teams and ideas, the Antler ONDC platform will offer an initial pre-seed capital injection of USD 300,000. In addition to this, potential exists for an additional investment of up to USD 200,000 from prominent partners within the Antler network, which includes unicorn founders and strategic backers.

Entrepreneurs in earlier stages, even those without established teams or concrete ideas, are also set to benefit from this initiative. The platform has been tailored to include a curated community that assists pre-team and pre-idea founders in amplifying their initial journey. By collaborating with ONDC experts, operators, and influential companies such as Namma Yatri, Plotch.ai, SellerApp, and Magicpin, aspiring entrepreneurs can access valuable insights and knowledge to propel their visions forward.

Nitin Sharma, Partner at Antler in India, said, “India has digitised identity and payments, and we believe it is time to now set our sights on the next major unlock - digitising commerce. Only 6 per cent of MSMEs are active sellers on digital platforms. With ONDC, we believe this has the potential to grow to 30-40 per cent over the next decade; boosting massive growth for India.” 

“As the first VCs to launch a platform to increase talent density and enable opportunities on ONDC, we are excited to partner with visionaries such as Mr Nilekani and the FIDE, ONDC leadership. We are excited to see founders building at population scale in themes like complex commerce, vernacular commerce and flow-based lending, to name a few. The Antler ONDC platform will provide everything from the best resources to a vibrant community and seed capital for them,” he added.

The community aspect of the platform takes it a step further by providing problem-solving sessions and office hours with key leaders in the digital public infrastructure domain. Esteemed individuals such as Dr Pramod Varma, co-founder of FIDE, Vibhor Jain, COO of ONDC, and Abey Zacharia, an ONDC Specialist, will contribute their expertise to guide and mentor entrepreneurs on the path to success.

Speaking on the importance of ONDC and Beckn Protocol, Sujith Nair, co-founder, FIDE said, “Beckn protocol is at the heart of ONDC, which brings all segments of commerce together for entrepreneurs to build on top of and achieve rapid market expansion. It offers a playground for innovators, problem-solvers and change-makers, giving everybody a fair chance to participate in an online market and I encourage entrepreneurs to build on ONDC and build with Beckn Protocol.”