Look at your phone right now. You likely have one app for UPI payments, a separate one for tracking your mutual funds, another for your health insurance, and your primary bank app for savings. Starting a simple 1000 INR systematic investment plan (SIP) with a new fund house usually means downloading their specific app, completing another video KYC process, and remembering yet another password.
App fatigue is real for Indian internet users. This fragmentation is exactly what ONDC financial services is fixing in 2026. The government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), initially known for food delivery and shopping, has expanded aggressively into personal finance.
The concept is straightforward. You should be able to open your preferred payment or shopping app and buy a financial product from any provider in India. You do not need to download a new app to buy a new product. If you regularly read our explainers, you know that open networks fundamentally change how internet services operate in India.
Unbundling finance: The UPI analogy
Before 2016, sending money from an HDFC account to an SBI account through a mobile app was frustrating. You needed IFSC codes and had to endure wait times for adding payees. UPI changed the rules by creating an open background network. Today, you can use PhonePe to send money from an ICICI account to a Google Pay user with an Axis account. The app you use does not limit who you can interact with.
ONDC does the exact same thing for commerce and finance. ONDC is not a consumer app you can download from the Google Play Store. It is a set of background rules and digital plumbing that connects buyers and sellers. In the financial context, the seller is an asset management company or an insurance provider. The buyer app is whatever application you already use every day.
How to buy mutual funds on the network
The mutual fund industry in India traditionally relied on distributors who pushed products offering the highest commissions. Direct mutual fund apps fixed the commission problem but created an app-clutter problem. ONDC removes both barriers completely.
Zerodha Fund House recently debuted on ONDC to simplify mutual fund access. They recognized that reaching rural and tier-2 internet users is difficult if you force everyone to download a dedicated, complex investing application. By putting their funds on ONDC, Zerodha lets users buy their index funds through any consumer app connected to the network.
Non-traditional financial apps are also entering this space. Dream 11, the fantasy sports giant, recently integrated its Dream Money platform with ONDC to roll out mutual fund distribution. A user managing their fantasy cricket team could use their winnings to start a mutual fund SIP, all within the same digital ecosystem.
The standard investment process
If you want to buy a mutual fund via ONDC today, the process happens mostly in the background:
- Open your preferred ONDC-enabled buyer app.
- Search for the mutual fund or asset management company you want.
- The app fetches the live net asset value (NAV) and fund details through the network.
- You authorize your KYC digitally.
- You make the payment using UPI or internet banking.
- The mutual fund units are allocated directly to your PAN and appear in your consolidated account statement.
Solving the KYC friction
The KYC process is one of the biggest friction points in Indian finance. Typically, each financial institution requires you to upload your PAN card, take a selfie, and sign a piece of paper on camera. With ONDC, the network leverages India's existing digital public infrastructure.
When you authorize a purchase, your verified credentials flow securely from DigiLocker or your Aadhaar profile to the asset management company. The buyer app acts strictly as a pass-through entity. It does not store your core identity documents. This reduces the risk of data breaches where a random app leaks your Aadhaar details on the internet.
The rise of gold and silver ETFs
Indians buy a massive amount of gold. But physical gold involves making charges, storage risks, and purity concerns. Digital gold fixed some of this, but it remains largely unregulated. Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are the safest, SEBI-regulated way to buy precious metals digitally.
Stable Money is currently leading a surge in gold and silver ETFs on ONDC. Investors are buying these safe, regulated products because the network makes them as easy to purchase as ordering a cab. You log in, pick your ETF, pay via UPI, and the units are credited to your demat account.
There is no hard selling. We cover more of this in our investment guides, but the convenience factor here cannot be overstated. Consider a rural investor who wants to buy silver for a festival. Previously, they had to visit a local jeweler and pay whatever markup was demanded. Now, they can open their standard UPI app, select a SEBI-registered silver ETF through ONDC, and buy fractional units at the exact market price. This democratizes access to safe assets.
Buying insurance without the spam calls
Buying insurance online usually follows a predictable, annoying path. You visit an aggregator website to compare term life or health insurance quotes. You enter your phone number to see the prices. Five minutes later, your phone rings. It will keep ringing for the next three weeks as different agents try to pressure you into buying their specific policy.
ONDC changes the power dynamic in insurance distribution. The network separates the buyer application from the product provider. You can browse policies from multiple insurers anonymously through your chosen app. You only share your contact details when you actually decide to buy a policy.
Major players see this shift happening. Bajaj Markets recently joined the network, bringing its 16 million user traffic to the ecosystem. When companies of this size plug into open networks, it forces the entire industry to standardize pricing and make policy documents easier to read.
Digital lending and credit
While mutual funds and insurance are active now, lending is the next major addition for ONDC. The goal is to standardize personal loans and working capital loans for small businesses. A shop owner in Madurai should be able to request a 50,000 INR short-term loan on a buyer app, and receive competitive interest rate offers from five different banks instantly.
ONDC Chief Executive T. Koshy recently stated that various fintech players are in different stages of onboarding for these exact services. We recommend watching our fintech updates as these lending protocols go live, because they will fundamentally change how small businesses handle cash flow.
The reality of using the network today
I want to be honest about the current user experience. The technology is impressive, but the consumer experience is still rough around the edges. We are in the early adoption phase.
If you face a payment failure while buying a mutual fund on an ONDC buyer app, the customer support process can be confusing. Do you complain to the app you used? Do you complain to the mutual fund company? Do you contact your bank? The network has built-in grievance redressal mechanisms, but frontline customer service agents at these apps are still learning how to handle network-level disputes.
Your choice of buyer apps is also currently limited. Companies like Navi are successfully linking UPI with ONDC for everyday tasks like metro QR ticketing. However, complex financial products require apps to build specific, secure user interfaces. It takes time for developers to build trust with users.
Open networks succeed when they make the complex invisible. ONDC's success in finance depends entirely on whether an older user can buy an index fund with three taps on their screen, without understanding the plumbing underneath.
How to protect yourself
Because ONDC makes buying financial products incredibly fast, it also makes it easy to buy the wrong thing quickly. You still need to do your research. The network only provides the connection; it does not guarantee that a specific mutual fund will give you good returns.
Always verify the product details. Check the expense ratio on mutual funds. Read the waiting periods on health insurance policies. Use trusted personal finance apps to track your investments once you make them. If an offer on a buyer app promises guaranteed unrealistic returns, report it immediately and verify the provider's registration with SEBI or IRDAI.
We also expect to see an increase in cyber scams related to fake buyer apps. Only use established apps to access the network. If you encounter a fraudulent app asking for money to register for ONDC, report it to the national cybercrime portal at cybercrime.gov.in or call the 1930 helpline.
The shift to open networks for money is happening now. Within a year, downloading a separate app for every financial service will feel as outdated as asking for an IFSC code to send a friend 500 rupees.
