ONDC To Likely Rope In Paytm's Rohit Lohia As CBO

Rohit Lohia, senior vice-president at Paytm, will reportedly join the state-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) as its new chief business officer (CBO), as per a Moneycontrol report.

Lohia’s appointment is expected to fill the gap left by Shireesh Joshi, who resigned from the CBO role in March this year. For context, Lohia was involved in strategy, growth, and business operations at Paytm, and held board positions at both Paytm Money and QorQl.

The move comes amid top-level churn at ONDC. In the past few months, the network has witnessed a series of senior management departures, including the exit of CEO Thampy Koshy in April and independent director Arvind Gupta in June.

ONDC has since placed its operational reins in the hands of an eight-member executive committee, and elevated chief operating officer (COO) Vibhor Jain as acting CEO.

Both ONDC and Paytm declined to comment on Lohia’s appointment.

Notably, Lohia is set to assume the CBO role at a time when ONDC’s retail vertical is under pressure despite doling out incentives. While the platform recorded 17.94 Mn transactions in August 2025, a 2.7% increase month-on-month, growth was mainly concentrated in mobility and logistics sectors, which together constituted over 14 Mn transactions.

On the other hand, retail transactions, a traditional growth driver for ONDC, fell to 3.76 Mn last month. This was nearly half of 6.1 Mn transactions in August 2024.

As a result, Lohia’s arrival comes at a critical point for ONDC as it looks to reverse the downtrend in retail and stabilise the leadership team.

ONDC classifies its business into three main segments – retail, logistics, and mobility. Retail covers categories like food, fashion, and electronics; logistics handles delivery fulfillment and last-mile solutions; and mobility includes ride-hailing and public transit ticketing.

The post ONDC To Likely Rope In Paytm’s Rohit Lohia As CBO appeared first on Inc42 Media.