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Spice Money on Tuesday announced that it is the only rural fintech player and one of the four buyer-side apps to be implemented on the centre-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) that has gone live for beta testing in Bengaluru Urban District.

The soft launch is said to be invite-only before it moves out of the beta phase and is made available to the public. It will facilitate Spice Money to help its Adhikaris access small merchant stores without being restricted to only their localities.

"Since inception, fostering inclusivity for the citizens of Bharat has been foremost in our minds," Sanjeev Kumar, Co-Founder and CEO, Spice Money, said in a statement.

"We have been working closely with ONDC, that will solve the problem of discoverability for small businesses who cannot afford to pay substantial commissions or spend for getting better visibility on established e-commerce platforms," Kumar added.

ONDC is not an application, platform, intermediary, or software but a set of specifications designed to foster open, unbundled, and interoperable open networks, thereby eliminating the dependency on a single platform.

"With ONDC, e-commerce in India is going to get democratised like never before. Our Spice Money Adhikari stores in rural India will benefit immensely through this e-commerce revolution. At Spice Money, we are delighted to currently be the only rural fintech player to be a part of this movement," Kumar said.

The current market penetration of ecommerce, in terms of the overall economy, stands at 8 per cent.

With ONDC, it is expected to grow to 25 per cent in the next two years. With almost 70 per cent of the country's population residing in rural regions that contribute almost 50 per cent of the GDP of the country, the lion's share in this projected growth of ecommerce will be from this sector.

Spice Money, the category creator for rural fintech, is uniquely positioned to play the torchbearer in this regard, owing to its expertise and understanding of the rural market, and is positioned to become a strategic ally in this initiative.