Zetwerk becomes 25th unicorn of 2021; raises $150 Mn in Series E

Zetwerk, a business-to-business marketplace for custom manufacturing, has raised a new round led by D1 Capital Partners. This is the second fundraise for the company in 2021 including a $120 million Series D round in February.

Breakdown of the current round, entry into the unicorn club

According to the company’s regulatory filings, it has raised close to Rs 900 crore or $120 million in its Series E in which D1 Capital Partners has invested $50 million followed by Green Oaks and Lightspeed which put in $32 million and $22.5 million respectively.

Avenir, Sequoia Capital, Accel and angel investors such as Kunal Shah and Ritesh Aggarwal have brought in the rest.

According to Zetwerk, the company has raised $150 million in this round at valuation of $1.33 billion.

With this, the company has entered the coveted club of unicorns and becomes the 25th startup to attain the feat in the ongoing calendar year. Earlier this week, Grofers, an online grocery platform turned into a unicorn after raising $100 million from Zomato.

Biz model and foray into new categories 

Founded by Amrit Acharya, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Rahul Sharma and Vishal Chaudhary, three-year-old Zetwerk connects buyers and suppliers for manufacturing jobs. The company partners with offline suppliers who are engaged in the fabrication, machining, casting, forging, and galvanizing of machine parts. 

The company has also made an entry into manufacturing categories, such as consumer goods, apparel, defence, and aerospace.

Operational in over 15 countries, it claims to serve over 100 customers across more than 25 industries in India, North America, Middle-East and South-East Asia.

Employees hit paydirt too

Soon after the last fundraise, Zetwerk also bought back ESOPs worth $8.3 million (over Rs 60 crore)  from its employees and early backers. As per the company, a large section of its 400 employees workforce participated in the ESOP liquidation process which was done in three rounds. The company also joined growth stage startups such as Udaan, ShareChat, Razorpay, CRED and Licious in going for an ESOP liquidation in the last eight months.

B2B unicorns on the rise 

Out of 25 unicorns of 2021, four companies have joined the list from the b2b e-commerce space. The list includes OfBusiness, Moglix, Zetwerk and Infra.Market.

Update on August 23: The story has been updated after Zetwerk's press release which says that it has raised $150 million in Series E round at a valuation of $1.33 billion.