ONDC’s FY25 loss narrows to Rs 147 crore even as expenses stay high, revenue more than doubles

The government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has reported a more than 127% surge in total revenue at Rs 33.41 crore for 2024-25, as per financials sourced from market intelligence platform Tracxn.

The network had posted Rs 14.7 crore revenue in the previous fiscal year.

Despite the sharp topline growth, ONDC remains in the red. The net loss narrowed to Rs 147.13 crore in FY25 from Rs 195.6 crore in the previous year.


Total expenses declined to Rs 180.54 crore from Rs 210.3 crore a year earlier, reflecting some cost rationalisation after the previous year’s scale-up.

The company derived Rs 60.35 crore cash from investing activities.

"Other income would be fixed deposits. Whatever equity it has gotten, ONDC would have put it in the standard investment options," a source said.

ONDC did not respond to ET's request for a comment.

The network facilitated 3.69 million retail orders in July and 3.76 million in August, as per the ONDC website, but stopped revealing monthly retail order numbers from September.

ONDC had announced on May 13 this year that chief operating officer Vibhor Jain would assume the role of acting chief executive officer with immediate effect, and the network has not appointed a CEO since then. Former CEO T Koshy had stepped down on April 9.

Operating income improved but remained negative at Rs 146.26 crore, compared with Rs 194.2 crore in FY24.

Cost structure and cash burn

Employee benefit expenses rose 37% year-on-year to Rs 60.42 crore, signalling continued team expansion and higher people costs as the network builds out its ecosystem capabilities.

Other expenses, which include rent, travel, legal and professional fees, and miscellaneous items, remained the largest cost bucket at Rs 116.27 crore, although this was down 28% from Rs 161.9 crore in FY24.

Annual gross burn stood at Rs 176.7 crore in FY25, lower than Rs 206.1 crore in the previous year, while net burn improved to -Rs 143.3 crore from -Rs 191.5 crore.

ONDC had in December last year proposed to levy a fee of Rs 1.5 (exclusive of taxes) on every successful transaction where the total transaction value exceeds Rs 250 after discounts and taxes. It originally specified that the fee would come into effect from January 1 this year. After extending the deadline thrice, in an October notification, the network postponed the implementation of the network fee indefinitely.