Uber expands in India with logistics service, metro ticketing

Uber has launched a B2B logistics service and metro ticketing in Bengaluru through a partnership with the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).

The new service enables Uber’s driver partners to handle grocery deliveries for brands including Zepto and KPN Farm Fresh.

Orders placed on a seller’s app or website are fulfilled by Uber Direct, which operates as a behind-the-scenes logistics solution for businesses.

Uber plans to expand the service to food delivery in the coming weeks, with brands such as KFC, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Rebel Foods.

The company also rolled out metro ticketing in Bengaluru, a feature already available in Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai.

Uber serves 125 cities in India and reported 1.5 million monthly active drivers, and 1.2 billion completed trips as of 2025.

🔗 Source: YourStory

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

ONDC recorded 204 million transactions in March 2025 1 and lists 277 participants 2. Mobility orders were 58% of total in April 2025 2.
India’s e-commerce logistics market is worth $6.65 billion in 2025 3. ONDC’s share is unclear. Bengaluru holds 18-20% of local food delivery orders on the network 2, while Karnataka makes up 44% of its logistics volume 2.
The network’s cold start problem (too few buyers plus sellers in a city to trigger sustained activity) persists in cities with low participation 2, so Uber Direct’s entry may fill capacity gaps or just shift volume among sellers and buyer apps.

ONDC’s standardized API specifications 4 let any logistics provider work across seller ecosystems 3. Retailers plus restaurants want middleware (integration software) for rate shopping (comparing carrier prices and speeds), Service Level Agreement (SLA) tracking and address reconciliation (cleaning and standardizing addresses) across carriers.
White-label (rebrandable) logistics seller app codebases sit openly on GitHub 4. SaaS companies plus system integrators (firms that implement and connect software for clients) can build integration layers fast with little custom work.
Retail orders on ONDC fell from 6.5 million to 4.3 million between October 2024 and April 2025 2, as total transactions grew. Merchants want tools to cut fulfillment costs. Orchestration platforms (software that routes, then manages shipments across multiple carriers) look like core infrastructure for price and speed tradeoffs.