Indian B2B startup Zetwerk banks $2.2m from Innoven Capital

India-based Zetwerk, a B2B marketplace for manufacturing services, has raised 160 million rupees (US$2.2 million) from venture debt provider Innoven Capital.

Photo credit: Pxhere

Established in 2018, Zetwerk offers an on-demand platform for original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and engineering procurement construction (EPC) firms. It plans to use the new funds to meet its growth requirements and expand its presence in India.

“We look forward to partner with Innoven Capital as we continue to scale our business, both domestically and internationally,” said Zetwerk co-founder and CEO Amrit Acharya. “We are focused on deepening our capabilities and widening our supplier base as we build a world-class platform for manufacturing services.”

To date, Zetwerk claims to have 1,500 SMEs and 100 enterprises across its platform.

On the demand side, the company works with medium-sized to large OEM companies from India and Southeast Asia, who require custom products and machine parts not available off the shelf. On the supply side, Zetwerk works with manufacturing SMEs across categories such as fabrication, machining, casting, and forging that can meet the demand.

According to the statement, there has been a recent uptick in investments in Indian online B2B marketplaces. Of all 7,400 startups in India, 43% were B2B companies in 2018. In 2014, only 26% of all 3,100 startups were B2B enterprises.

Last year, Zetwerk raised US$32 million in series B money from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Greenoaks Capital, Accel, and Sequoia India, among others.

Another B2B player is Mumbai-based Bizongo, an online marketplace for packaging materials that recently raised US$30 million in a series C round led by Swiss hedge fund Schroder Adveq. Other backers include B Capital, Accel, Chiratae Ventures, and IFC.

Procurement startup BazaarNXT also just raised US$450,000 in seed money from angel investors in Singapore and India.

The growth of India’s B2B industry also attracted investment from New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global Management, which made more than US$125 million across four deals in the segment last year. Of that amount, US$89 million was injected into Ninjacart, a marketing and delivery platform for farm produce.