Talking about unicorns. The Indian economy has started to rise from the negative and disastrous effects of COVID 19. The year 2020 and a portion of 2021 saw the economy at its stagnant phase, where nothing was in the operational stage, all the businesses and the startups were not working. Many of them were even closed because of the lack of funds and the customers. But with the coming of the year 2021, the startups and businesses started coming back in their operational lines.
Startups started receiving funding and many of them have been converted to the Golden Unicorns. When the value of the startups increases to more than USD 1 billion, then startups are called unicorn startups. The year 2021 has seen many unicorn startups coming up, and now we will be discussing the 25th Unicorn of the year 2021. Digit Insurance, PharmEasy, CRED, Sharechat, BlackBuck were some of the newly formed unicorns of the year 2021. The latest unicorn to join the list is Zetwerk.
The startup, as announced on August 23, 2021, has received funding of USD 150 million. This round of funding was the Series E round of funding and was led by D1 Capital Partners, which is a New York-based investment company. The other investors which participated in this round of funding were – some existing investors like Greenoaks Capital, Lightspeed Venture Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Accel Partners, and even some new investors- Avenir and IIFL.
Many big names of the industry became the angel investors in this round of funding, such names are- Kunal Shah (CRED), Ritesh Agarwal (Oyo), Cem Garih (Managing partner of Alarko Ventures), and Feth Sabanci Kamisli (Founding Partner of Esas Ventures).
After this round of funding, the value of the startup increased to USD 1.33 billion. Before this round of funding, the startup, in February 2021, had raised USD 120 million in the Series D round of funding and was valued at USD 600 million- USD 700 million, and now the value of the startup has been doubled. The funds raised will be used in building new technology, expanding itself globally, and strengthening its position as a market leader across industrial and consumer manufacturing supply chains.
About the unicorn
Founded in 2018, with Amit Acharya as the CEO of the startup, Zetwerk is a B2B manufacturing company that is engaged in developing the future of manufacturing. The startup uses a unique amalgam of ecosystem play, technology, partners, and talent that allows the startup to have deep expertise and desire to do something new. The goal of the startup is to provide a reliable and predictable supply of high-quality manufactured products to the customers. The startup has customers in more than 15 countries of the world.
The startup functions with a global supplier network, with special expertise in India, China, South East Asia, and is capable of handling different types of manufacturing processes from prototyping to production. The startup is the high sourcing partner in the country of India across various industries- Aerospace, Automobile, Oil&Gas, Energy, Cement, Steel, Sugar, Infrastructure, Material Handling, and many more.
The startup is preferred by the customers because of the following reasons-
a)On-time delivery
b)High-Quality Products
c)Strong project management
This unicorn does not choose its suppliers through an easy process, tough and rigorous supplier evaluations are done on the basis of quality, experience, infrastructure, and skills.
The milestones in the journey of the startup are defined below-
December 2017-Establishment of the startup
May 2018- Received the Seed Funding of USD 1.5 million from Kae and Sequoia
July 2018- Received the first domestic order
September 2018- Received first export order from South East Asia
December 2018- Received USD 9 million in Series A round of funding from Accel and Sequoia
March 2019- It is the first year that saw operations in full swing and generated USD 2.2 million in turnover and 30 customer acquisitions
April 2019- Crosses USD 15 million in order booking
July 2019- Became a full-blown team of 100 members
August 2019- Crossed USD 30 million in order booking
August 2019- Opened a captive marketing facility in Trichy
September 2019- Began its operations in the US, Mexico, and the Middle East Regions
November 2019- Raised USD 32 million in Series B round of funding by Lightspeed and Greenoaks
The startup has shown very good growth in the year 2020-2021 and had its revenue growing three times. It has the goal of growing its revenue by four times in the year 2021-2022. The claims made by the startup tell that the EBITDA has been turned positive and capital efficient manner is being used to grow business.
What does the CEO of the newly formed unicorn say?
The CEO of Zetwerk, Amrit Acharya, made a statement saying that the startup is engaged in shifting to digital manufacturing among the rapidly changing global supply chains. He further made a claim saying that in the last year, more than 100 Western companies have shifted their supply chains to India through Zetwerk, across industrial and consumer products.
The CEO even explained how they work and said that no business has such inventory. After receiving the order, the businesses look for manufacturers and workshops that make them.
What does the investor say?
Jeremy Goldstein of D1 Capital Partners made a statement which said that Zetwerk is new to the market, and in such a short duration of time, the startup has become a leader in developing and delivering fast and cost-effective manufacturing solutions to companies across the globe and is helping in transforming the traditional industry to a digital one.
This year has been witnessed the birth of many unicorns and we wish and hope to see many more in the remaining months of the year.
Edited by Sanjana Simlai.
