Business-to-business (B2B) manufacturing services marketplace Zetwerk, backed by US-based Greenoaks Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, on Thursday said it has elevated Ankit Fatehpuria as the fifth co-founder of the company.
Fatehpuria joined Zetwerk in March 2019 and is solely responsible for building the finance function for the company. He has additionally, seeded and scaled various business verticals for the B2B unicorn.
According to a company statement, Fatehpuria was at the helm when Zetwerk struck key partnerships with banks and financial institutions both within India and abroad.
Prior joining to Zetwerk, Ankit served as a category finance manager at tobacco-to-hotel conglomerate ITC and was an internal auditor at public sector giant Indian Oil Corporation. He is a chartered accountant and an alumnus of St Xavier’s College, Kolkata.
The move to elevate Fatehpuria comes shortly after the unicorn announced acquisition of 3 entities for Rs 100 crore (around $13 million), in a bid to strengthen its industrials portfolio across the oil & gas, aerospace, defence and infrastructure sectors.
The first buy by Zetwerk – Pinaka Aerospace – will give the company a clientele across electronic communication products in the aerospace and defence industries. The second acquisition – Sharp Tanks – is expected to increase Zetwerk’s exposure to the oil & gas industry, according to the company. Lastly, the acquisition of Wheels India’s Wardha fabrication unit will provide Zetwerk an entry into the market of manufacturing critical fabricated parts for power, roads and railways.
“Ankit’s contribution to building Zetwerk has been exemplary and he has demonstrated great leadership in crucial situations, earning trust and respect. He also embodies Zetwerk’s core values daily,” said Amrit Acharya, co-founder and chief executive officer, Zetwerk.
In December 2021, Zetwerk, operated by Zetwerk Manufacturing Businesses Pvt. Ltd, raised nearly $210 million in a Series F round led by US-based Greenoaks Capital ad participation from Iconiq Strategic Partners, D1 Capital, Steadview Capital, Avenir Zetwerk Investors and Lightspeed Venture.
Zetwerk’s valuation after this latest round is pegged at $2.7 billion.
Founded by Amrit Acharya, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Rahul Sharma and Vishal Chaudhary in 2018, the B2B unicorn connects mid-to-large original equipment manufacturers from India and Southeast Asia with firms that require custom products and machinery equipment.
The startup has forged partnerships in segments such as precision parts, capital goods and consumer goods. The product categories it serves include prefabricated structures for infrastructure projects, sheet metal for electric vehicles, precision parts for aerospace and assembly lines for consumer durables.
B2B marketplaces in India have raised funding at a frenetic pace with the gap between two rounds of funding being less than a year or just over a year for a few of them.
In November last year, VCCircle reported that Bizongo, a B2B marketplace and supply chain enablement platform for customised goods, is in advanced talks with several marquee investors to raise at least $100 million in its Series D round of funding.
