Bangalore-based Zetwerk, an online marketplace for corporate buyers and suppliers, has raised $9 million (~₹64 crore) in a Series A round of funding from Accel Partners, reported LiveMint. Its existing investors Sequoia Capital and Kae Capital also contributed to the round.
Founded in 2017, by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras alumni Amrit Acharya and Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Zetwerk is a B2B marketplace focused on make-to-order custom manufacturing.
Interestingly, prior to co-founding Zetwerk, Srinath was heading the Supply Business for Blackbuck, which is also backed by Accel and working in logistics segment.
Zetwerk claims to be India's first on-demand manufacturing platform that serves OEM / EPC companies with outsourcing requirements and SME Suppliers with capacity. Zetwerk is a nation wide manufacturing network with massive capacity, wide manufacturing capability & project engineering expertise.
The startup had earlier raised a $1.2 million seed funding round from Kae Capital and Sequoia in August last year.
Zetwerk works primarily with clients in the oil and gas, power, renewable energy and infrastructure businesses. Its clients include Embassy Office Parks, Thyssenkrupp, Jindal, BGR energy, Embassy Group and Fidelity Contracts.
In last one year or so, B2B (business-to-business) startups have managed to attract investors resulting a record $3.09 billion fund-raise across 415 rounds in 2018. This was 28% more than the $2.41 billion allocated in 2017, across 534 rounds, according to data tracker Tracxn.
Earlier this month, Noida-based Moglix, a B2B industrial goods marketplace, had raised an undisclosed amount from Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, which marked his first solo personal investment.
In December, Bangalore-based Ninjacart, a B2B agri-marketing platform that connects farmers with retailers, had raised US$35 million in series B round of funding from Accel Partners (US), Switzerland-based Syngenta Ventures and Neoplux, a South Korean private equity firm.
In October, US-based software firm, Ebix, Inc., an international supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance, financial, healthcare and e-learning industries, today announced that one of its India-based EbixCash subsidiaries has acquired a 67% stake in Routier, a Delhi-based B2B Marketplace for Trucking Logistics.