Sequoia-backed Zetwerk gets $32m from Lightspeed, Greenoaks, others

Zetwerk, an Indian business-to-business marketplace for the manufacturing industry, has secured US$32 million in a series B funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Greenoaks Capital.

Existing investors Sequoia India, Accel, and Kae Capital, as well as Udaan co-founder Vaibhav Gupta and Oyo chief strategy officer Maninder Gulati also participated in the round, according to several reports.

The startup also raised about US$14.2 million in debt funding from a consortium of banks and others, Zetwerk CEO Amrit Acharya told TechCrunch.

Photo credit: Pixabay

Founded in 2018, Zetwerk connects buyers and suppliers for customized products in the manufacturing industry. The startup offers companies services such as galvanizing, casting, forging, fabrication, and machining, among others. It has served over 100 enterprises, connecting more than 1,500 manufacturers to date.

“We have just started building a full-stack offering and will need funds to go beyond discovery and acting as a marketplace, but also venture into financing, logistics, helping suppliers in purchasing materials and others,” Acharya said in an Economic Times report.

He also said that Zetwerk is trying to develop its international operations across the US, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. “We cater to our customers from different parts of the country, but only 5% of our business is around exports where customers are outside India and suppliers are here,” he said.

India is expected to become the fifth largest manufacturing country in the world by the end of 2020, according to India Brand Equity Foundation.

In 2014, India launched the Make in India initiative to boost the manufacturing industry in the country. Through the program, the government aims to increase the contribution of the manufacturing sector to the nation’s gross domestic product to 25% by 2022, up from 16%, and to create 100 million new jobs by 2022.

Zetwerk closed a US$9 million series A funding round in March and a US$1.2 million seed round in August 2018.