Bengaluru: The company Uber has entered the business-to-business (B2B) last-mile logistics market in India with Uber Direct, a white-label delivery service built on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). The launch puts Uber in direct competition with enterprise logistics providers such as Shadowfax, Delhivery, Ecom Express, Xpressbees and Shiprocket, which handle deliveries for e-commerce companies and brands. But unlike these players, who work directly with online and offline merchants (both online and offline sellers depend on last-mile logistics), Uber Direct will only process orders for merchants and brands registered on ONDC and accessed through ONDC-integrated buyer applications. Launched in Bengaluru, the service offers grocery deliveries for Zepto and KPN Farm Fresh, and will soon handle food orders for quick-service restaurant (QSR) brands including KFC, Burger King, Taco Bell and Rebel Foods. Uber India head Prabhjeet Singh told Mint that Uber Direct will initially rely on the company’s two-wheeler fleet, which will provide bike taxi drivers with an additional revenue stream alongside its business-to-business (B2B) parcel service, Uber Courier, and the consumer-facing Uber Bike Taxi category. From a rider’s point of view, Singh said the ONDC connection effectively turns each Uber bike into a multi-use asset, allowing the same driver to switch between transporting passengers, managing consumer courier work through Uber Courier, and handling B2B ONDC orders on Uber Direct during the day. “We are starting with two-wheelers because they are the most efficient and affordable for businesses. Over time, we can add various other form factors based on the different types of packages the businesses need to sell,” he added. The launch also comes amid a regulatory crackdown on cycle taxi services in Karnataka, where the state government halted operations in June after questioning their legality under the Motor Vehicles Act. Although cycle taxi options later reappeared on apps run by Uber, Rapido and Ola during subsequent court hearings. Regulatory tides Uber currently has more than 1.5 million drivers across cars, three-wheelers and two-wheelers in India, though Singh did not share a category-wise breakdown. He also said that Uber Bike is “one of the fastest growing parts” of the portfolio and that the firm is adding “tens of thousands” of two-wheel drivers every month. Uber Direct is not the first attempt to use the open network for digital commerce for logistics; rival Ola briefly offered food delivery on ONDC using its fleet of drivers before withdrawing that option from its app recently, according to recent media reports. Singh said ONDC is onboarding a wide spectrum of merchants – from big brands to mid-sized sellers – at a time when consumers are increasingly expecting faster delivery across categories beyond grocery, thanks to the rise of fast commerce platforms such as Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, BigBasket Now and Flipkart Minutes. According to a March 2025 report by Flipkart and Bain and Co., India’s rapid commerce market generated an estimated gross merchandise value (GMV) of around $6–7 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a rate of around 40% annually. This GMV is mainly dominated by three players—Swiggy’s Instamart, Zepto and Zomato-owned Blinkit. “Many players will still need incremental capacity during peak times, and a large spectrum of merchants don’t want to build captive delivery fleets, and that’s where we believe Uber can play a role,” Singh said. Uber only started working closely with ONDC last year, initially through metro ticketing, which now resides in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, and has expanded to Bengaluru. Singh said Uber was “very thoughtful” about entering new lines and “didn’t want to just announce a new thing and walk away,” instead waiting until there were clear synergies between ONDC’s open rail and Uber’s logistics and transportation stack. The timing also coincides with rapid growth in its two-wheeler network, which allows the company to offer riders multiple performance options, including passenger rides, consumer couriers, B2B logistics, and, in some pilots, data tagging work for Uber’s artificial intelligence tools during peak times, he added. Uber Direct is already a globally available B2B delivery product, resident in several other markets, where it powers same-day and on-demand deliveries directly from merchant channels, such as websites, apps and call centers. For example, in North America and Europe, the service is used by supermarkets, pharmacies, big-box retailers and restaurant chains to offer quick deliveries from their own storefronts. However, in India, the B2B offering is exclusively led by the ONDC rather than direct merchant integrations.