India’s Adani Group is in discussions to venture into e-commerce and digital payments, according to Financial Times, as the conglomerate seeks to diversify its portfolio and compete with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart and PhonePe.
The Adani Group is considering applying for a license to operate on India’s Unified Payments Interface, a public digital payments network that has become the most popular way Indians transact online, FT reported. The group, one of India’s top three conglomerates, is also finalizing plans for a co-branded credit card with banks, the report said.
This isn’t the first time energy-to-infrastructure giant Adani Group has shown an interest in digital offerings. The firm launched Adani One, a consumer app in 2022 through which it sells travel tickets. Gautam Adani, the Indian group’s chief executive, also said he was excited for “future collaborations” with Uber during the ride-hailing firm’s chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi’ recent visit to India.
Adani Group is engaging to offer online shopping through the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform, according to one person familiar with the matter. The planned e-commerce and mobile payments services would be accessible through Adani One, according to FT, which also reported that Adani Group will initially seek to target new ventures to its existing customer base of hundreds of millions of users.
The consumer push follows a tumultuous year for Adani, with allegations of market manipulation and fraud by the U.S. short seller Hindenburg Research, resulting in a $150 billion rout in its listed stocks. Adani has denied any wrongdoing.
