Key Highlights:
- Zetwerk joins India’s unicorn club after raising $150 million in a funding round.
- The business reported a threefold increase in sales in 2020-21, reaching $128 million.
- The firm intends to use the new funds to develop its technological stack and enter new foreign markets.
Zetwerk secures $150 million funding
In the South Asian market, an Indian firm that runs a business-to-business marketplace for manufacturing products has become the newest unicorn.
Zetwerk, located in Bangalore, said on August 23 that it had secured $150 million in a Series E funding round headed by D1 Capital Partners of New York. Along with previous investors Greenoaks Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Accel Partners, new investors Avenir and IIFL joined the round. Several high-profile angel investors participated in the round, including Kunal Shah of CRED and Ritesh Agarwal of OYO.
Zetwerk is now valued at $1.33 billion, more than double the $600 million to $700 million it was valued at in its Series D round in February.
Boost in sales in 2020-21
The four-year-old firm connects OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and EPC (engineering procurement construction) clients with manufacturing small companies and enterprises through a business-to-business marketplace for manufactured products.
All of the goods it sells now are custom-made, including crane components, doors, and machine chassis.
“Nobody has a stock of such inventories. You get the order, you find manufacturers and workshops that make them,” explained Amrit Acharya, co-founder, and chief executive of Zetwerk.
The business, which has recently expanded to Southeast Asia and North America, reported a threefold increase in sales in 2020-21, reaching $128 million.
“In a short period of time, we believe Zetwerk has become a leader in delivering fast and cost-effective manufacturing solutions to companies globally and accelerating the pace of digital transformation of a very traditional industry,” said Jeremy Goldstein of D1 Capital Partners, in a statement.
The 25th Unicorn
The firm intends to use the new funds to develop its technological stack and enter new foreign markets.
“Zetwerk is helping enterprises navigate the shift to digital manufacturing amidst rapidly changing global supply chains,” said Acharya. “Over the last year, more than 100 western companies have moved their supply chains to India via Zetwerk, across industrial and consumer products.”
As high-profile global investors aggressively double down on potential businesses in the world’s second-largest internet market, Zetwerk has become the 25th Indian company to become a unicorn this year, up from 11 last year.
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