Hardeep Singh
Introduction to the Company
Four IITians built a profitable B2B marketplace for custom manufacturing, becoming India’s 26th billion-dollar company this year. The team consists of Rahul Sharma, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Amrit Acharya, Vishal Chaudhary, and Srinath Ramakkrushnan. Amrit Acharya was bothered by the question near the end of 2017. With a high-paying position with McKinsey in San Francisco, the IIT Madras graduate had no reason to complain. After four years at ITC in India, Acharya took a year off in 2014 to pursue an MBA at the University of California, Berkeley.
New Fundings and new Future prospects
According to regulatory filings, the company’s Series E round raised around Rs 900 crore ($120 million), with D1 Capital Partners investing $50 million, Green Oaks contributing $32 million, and Lightspeed investing $22.5 million each.
According to the authentic sources, the company raised $150 million in this round, valued at $1.33 billion in August this year. As a result, the company has joined the exclusive club of unicorns, making it the 25th startup to do so this year. Grofers, an online grocery delivery service, recently raised $100 million from Zomato, making it a unicorn.
With the Series E investment in a record-breaking year, Zetwerk India becomes the 25th unicorn of 2021 (private companies valued at more than a billion dollars). Current investors Greenoaks Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Accel joined Avenir and IIFL. Ritesh Agarwal of Oyo and Kunal Shah of Cred both invested.
Foundation of Zetwerk and past achievements
Zetwerk, which means “solid foundation” in Dutch was founded in 2018, connects small and medium-sized businesses with mid-to-large OEMs and engineering, procurement, and construction firms, first in India and Southeast Asia and now in North America.
Zetwerk has benefited from global supply chains migrating to rising markets like India, trade battles between the US and China, and a general anti-China stance. A shift in political winds could be problematic for Zetwerk, but the company has five to ten manufacturing partners to assist mitigate the risk.
It has about 100 customers in North America, ranging from small businesses to large corporations. For one company, it creates nail clippers, which are regarded a niche market yet are widely utilised at the same time.
The company connects businesses with Indian manufacturing partners, and has raised $150 million in a $1.3 billion fundraising round, giving it India’s 25th unicorn this year.
D1 Capital Partners led the most recent round of fundraising. Greenoaks Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Accel were among the previous investors in the round, along with Avenir and IIFL.
The funds are in addition to the $120 million raised by Zetwerk in February, only three years after the company’s inception.
“In the face of continually changing global supply chains, Zetwerk is assisting enterprises in managing the road to digital manufacturing,” said Amrit Acharya, CEO of Zetwerk.
Over 100 Western corporations relocated their supply lines to India in the preceding year, including both industrial and consumer goods.
The monies will be utilised to develop new technology, expand and market the company’s fuel supply.
Conclusion
This is the second round of fundraising for the company in 2021. In February, Zetwerk raised $120 million in a Series D financing headed by Greenoaks Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners in the United States to assist customers translate their digital designs into tangible things using the flexible manufacturing capacity of small manufacturers. The round was also attended by Sequoia Capital India and Kae Capital.
It would be prudent to forecast where this platform will go in terms of future advancements.
