Manufacturing marketplace Zetwerk is set to list on the stock exchanges on Friday, October 23, 2026 — and its alumni are already writing India's manufacturing startup story, with ventures founded by former Zetwerk executives attracting over $130 million in funding, Business Standard reported on October 21, 2026.
The alumni cohort
Three years ago, Salil Srivastava ran the chemicals division at Zetwerk. Today, Scimplify, the specialty chemicals company he co-founded in 2023, reports an annualised revenue run rate of about $200 million and was reportedly valued at around $250 million in a round led by Hitachi Ventures last week.
Sanlayan Technologies, founded in 2023 by former Zetwerk executives Abhijit Kothawale, Rohan Gala and Rahul Vamsidhar, raised Rs 186 crore in a Series A round in June 2025 and bought a majority stake in Dexcel Electronics, a 20-year-old embedded systems firm — a two-year-old startup now owning an incumbent nearly ten times its age. There are at least a dozen such companies in the cohort.
A template for Indian manufacturing
Eight years after Zetwerk pioneered the managed manufacturing marketplace in India, its model of orchestrating factories rather than owning them has become a template — and manufacturing is one of the few corners of Indian venture capital where deal activity is climbing.
Why it matters for founders
Zetwerk's alumni network shows how a category-defining startup becomes a founder factory. If you are operating inside a high-growth company today, the playbook — deep domain expertise, then a venture of your own — is proven and fundable.