Manufacturing Unicorn Zetwerk Makes Fourth Acquisition, Buys US-Based Unimacts For $39 Mn

Zetwerk acquisition spree continued in 2022. It has acquired the US-based manufacturing services company Unimacts at a valuation of $39 Mn to strengthen its international operations. This is the fourth acquisition by the Bengaluru-based manufacturing and supply chain unicorn.

In July this year, Zetwerk acquired three Indian companies across aerospace and defense (Pinaka Aerospace), oil and gas (SharpTank), and fabric solutions (Wheels India’s fabrication unit, The Wardha) segments in July 2022.

Entire Unimacts team, along with its key executives including CEO Matthew Arnold, CFO Andrew Woglom, and COO Alan Hays, will be joining Zetwerk, taking its global employee count to 1,900.

“With this acquisition and expansion in North America, Zetwerk is well positioned to help even more businesses create self-reliant supply chains in renewable energy and infrastructure,” said Vaibhav Agrawal, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners and Zetwerk’s Board Member.

Unimacts operates within various industries including industrial products, material handling, and renewable energy segments. It will help Zetwerk with its expertise in renewable energy manufacturing as well as in the supply of highly specified mechanical products, logistics support, design for manufacturing, inventory management, and near-customer warehousing.

The acquisition will equip Unimacts with the necessary capital to scale up its presence in the US, Europe and Mexico, along with access to a strong off-shore footprint in India and Vietnam.

Overall, Unimacts’s customer relations, supply partners, and business operations will remain unaffected. As Arnold indicated, partnering with Zetwerk will allow the company to accelerate its growth and global reach and provide more comprehensive solutions to its customers.

“With the recent $1.2 Tn infrastructure bill and Inflation Reduction Act, the renewable energy sectors of solar and wind in the US are poised for significant growth. These have been the primary end markets for Unimacts over the last five years and we are excited to pursue significant growth in these markets with our new partners,” he added.

Founded in 2018 by Acharya, Srinath Ramakkrushnan and Vishal Chaudhary, Zetwerk is a manufacturing services platform. It connects manufacturing companies with vendors and suppliers for customised products, industrial machine components and other equipment.

The startup became a unicorn in August 2021 after raising $150 Mn from D1 Capital Part­ners. It also raised another $210 Mn in December 2021.

The startup was also under scrutiny earlier this year as the Income Tax Department raided its premises on suspicion of tax evasion.

As claimed by Zetwerk, its gross merchandise value grew six-fold to $770 Mn from $130 Mn in 2020-21, while its operating revenue expanded to $670 Mn from $110 Mn. It claimed that it is on track to do well over $1 Bn of revenue in the current fiscal year. Also, as reported earlier, Zetwerk posted a net loss of INR 59.7 Cr in FY22 as compared to INR 41.1 Cr in FY21 and total expenses surged 465% to INR 5,145.4 Cr in FY22 from INR 909 Cr in FY21.

Zetwerk has more than 2,000 customers across North America, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, and a network of more than 10,000 manufacturing partners worldwide.