Zetwerk will use the latest investments to launch new categories, strengthen its product stack, and global expansion
Indian business-to-business (B2B) marketplace for manufacturing items, Zetwerk Manufacturing Businesses Pvt. Ltd has raised US$21 million in a Series C funding round, led by San Francisco-based global venture capital firm Greenoaks Capital, according to a company statement released on July 1. This is Zetwerk’s third fundraise in seven months.
Returning investors who participated in the round include Ola and Swiggy backer Accel, Kae Capital, Lightspeed, and Sequoia Capital India, according to the company statement.
The startup has been raising back-to-back funding rounds since December 2019. After raising $32 million in a Series B funding round in December, Zetwerk raised another $2.2 million from InnoVen Capital in January. With the latest capital injection, the two-year-old startup’s total funding stands at $62 million.
The fresh funds will be used to launch new categories, strengthen the startup’s product stack, and expand the startup’s domestic and international presence.
Founded in 2018 by former ITC employees Amrit Acharya, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, and Vishal Chaudhary, along with ex-Blackbuck employee Rahul Sharma, the startup provides global end-to-end manufacturing supply chain solutions.
Zetwerk works with global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and engineering procurement construction (EPCs) companies and fulfills their manufacturing requirements for customized components and assemblies.
As a supplier, Zetwerk assumes full responsibility for high-quality production, on-time delivery, project management, and even quality control, without owning manufacturing facilities. The startup also offers Zetwerk Managed Inventory (ZMI) stocking and inventory management in local warehouses with a lead time of less than 5 days for production parts, according to the company’s website.
Zetwerk typically sells customized manufacturing parts for cranes, doors, and chassis of different machines and ladders, to businesses engaged in fabrication, forging, construction and casting.
“Nobody has a stock of such inventories. You get the order, you find manufacturers and workshops that make them. Our customers are companies that are in the business of building infrastructure,” said Zetwerk CEO Acharya.
“We index these small workshops and understand the kinds of products they have built before. These indexes help bigger companies discover and work with them,” he added.
Zetwerk allows businesses to track the progress of their order, from manufacturing to shipping. According to the startup, the manufacturing and shipping of such products usually takes 2 to 3 months, making it necessary to closely monitor the progress of the orders at each step of the process.
The startup has connected several Indian manufacturers with global clients, works with over 150 enterprises and 2,500 small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), and delivers more than 30,000 parts each month, registering a growth of 100% since December 2019, Techcrunch reported.
Zetwerks clients include renowened names in the industry like Larsen and Toubro, CleanMax Solar, Sterling and Wislon, and Amphenol.
Accel Partner Prayank Swaroop said, “Zetwerk is bringing Indian manufacturing to the global stage, and I’m proud to be part of their story.”
According to Neil Shah, responsible for Venture and Growth at Greenoaks, Zetwerk has developed a “unique software to enable an enormous global manufacturing marketplace connecting OEMs and EPCs with industrial suppliers.”
“Increasingly, companies are looking to diversify their supply chain globally and Zetwerk’s platform allows them to identify and collaborate with supplier partners to deliver projects on-time and with high quality,” he added.
According to the Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index published by Deloitte, India is expected to become the fifth largest manufacturing country in the world by the end of 2020, and the government aims to increase the manufacturing sector’s share in India’s GDP to 25% by 2022.
Currently, the sector accounts for 14% of the nation’s GDP, and yet, the country lacks a supporting ecosystem to execute projects more efficiently, said Acharya.
The startup has also launched Zetwerk Healthcare, to help connect buyers with manufacturers, sellers and resellers of PPE products, COVID-19 test kits, and other medical equipments, to fight against the global pandemic.
