Zetwerk Founders Story: How Amrit Acharya and Srinath Ramakkrushnan Built Zetwerk

Bidding for Zetwerk’s ₹5,012 crore IPO closes on Monday, October 19, and the Zetwerk founders are on both sides of the deal. Amrit Acharya and Srinath Ramakkrushnan are selling 1.42 crore shares each, and their promoter-group entity Creovate Innovation is selling up to 2.30 crore more. It is a long way from 2018, when two former ITC colleagues set out to sell software to the procurement teams of big manufacturers and found the sales cycle too long to survive on.

Zetwerk at a glance

Source: Inc42, YourStory, Dhan, Clay, as of October 2026.

Founding year note: most coverage says 2018, while a prospectus summary on Dhan gives incorporation as December 2017.

In this story (about 11 minutes)

Two IIT Madras friends and a problem spotted at ITC

Amrit Acharya grew up in Bhubaneswar and studied at IIT Madras. His first job was at ITC, where, according to StartupTalky, he was handed the task of building a new factory straight out of college. Consulting in the United States followed, including stints at McKinsey and Monsanto Growth Ventures listed on a Clay executive profile. OdishaBytes reports that visa uncertainty brought him back to India.

Srinath Ramakkrushnan had been his friend since their IIT Madras hostel days, according to an account published by Seed to Scale. He also passed through ITC, then worked at OfBusiness and at BlackBuck, where he ran a marketplace that sold products and services to truckers.

The idea came from what Acharya had seen at ITC: project managers struggling to find and track suppliers. The two decided to build software that organised supplier databases. Acharya went full time first, and Srinath joined a few months later after leaving BlackBuck.

Rahul Sharma, a former BlackBuck colleague of Srinath, and Vishal Chaudhary, a former ITC colleague who later worked at Rivigo, completed the founding group. 5paisa reported in August 2023 that Ankit Fatehpuria was named a fifth co-founder.

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The software that took too long to sell

The first Zetwerk was a software product for large manufacturers. In a 2021 interview with Inc42, Acharya said the team built it, took it to enterprises such as GE and L&T, and found they liked it.

Liking it was not the same as buying it. Accel’s write-up says that about three months in, the founders realised the sales cycle was too long, and they could not tell how much capital or patience it would demand. At the same time, they noticed that companies struggled to find good manufacturing suppliers. Entrepreneur India calls that the turning point.

Zetwerk moved from software to a marketplace, and later to a managed marketplace where it takes responsibility for the order. Rahul Sharma has described it as three pivots in all.

“These pivots proved to be crucial points for the business.” Rahul Sharma, co-founder, in a profile on Zetwerk’s insights blog (dated January 4, 2024)

Supplier by supplier: building the network

A marketplace is only as good as its suppliers. Srinath travelled across the country with an intern to sign up manufacturers, the Seed to Scale account says. Accel’s write-up records a $1 million seed round and the first hires, some approached before the round even closed.

By April 2023, 5paisa noted, Zetwerk held a letter of intent from Larsen & Toubro worth ₹126.55 crore for fabricated girders on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project. The company had started with general fabrication and moved into other categories from there.

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April 2020 and the 90% drop

Then came the lockdown. Outlook Business reports that Zetwerk’s revenue fell by 90% in April 2020. The company responded by widening its mix. Over the next two years it moved from a fully industrial business to roughly 70% industrial and 30% consumer products, according to the same report.

The recovery was quick. Inc42 reported that revenue rose to ₹949 crore in FY21 from ₹360 crore in FY20. In August 2021 Zetwerk announced a $150 million raise at a valuation of $1.33 billion, per Inc42, which made it a unicorn only about three years after founding.

“We are essentially a manufacturing company.” Amrit Acharya, in a 2021 interview with Inc42

A listing that took longer than planned

Acharya first put a timeline on a listing in March 2025, telling reporters that Zetwerk was looking at an IPO within 24 months. Inc42 had earlier reported that bankers were being lined up for a 2025 issue at a valuation near $5 billion.

“…this will happen once in our lives probably.” Amrit Acharya on global companies shifting production to India, Reuters, March 2025

The path then ran through a confidential filing in March 2026, when Moneycontrol also reported that Acharya had taken on the role of chairman. SEBI cleared the IPO on July 10, an updated draft prospectus followed on August 13, and the price band was set in October. Inc42 notes the issue arrives after several tech listings this year, including RentoMojo, Moneyview and Shiprocket.

At the upper end of the band, the company is valued at ₹25,583 crore (about $2.7 billion, per Inc42’s conversion, October 2026). That is close to the $2.7 billion reported before its December 2024 round, and below the $3 billion valuation Economic Times reported for that round.

Status as of October 18, 2026 (developing): one aggregator showed the issue about 0.31 times subscribed after the third day, with a grey market premium of ₹7 against ₹30 on October 12. Both are unofficial trackers, not exchange data, and the book usually shifts on the final day. Anchor investors had put in ₹2,251.23 crore on the opening day, Business Today reported.

How Zetwerk makes money

Zetwerk reports two businesses. The Manufacturing Business takes orders from industrial and consumer customers and fulfils them through third-party suppliers and its own factories, coordinated by software called Zetwerk OS. The Ecosystem Business, branded Terra91, sources and sells industrial commodities such as metals.

Source: IPO filings as reported by ipowatch, INDmoney and Inc42, as of October 2026.

The mix explains much of the debate around the stock. Terra91 adds large revenue at a very thin margin. Zetwerk also books the full value of products it sources, so analysts quoted by Inc42 argue for a lower revenue multiple, around 1.6 times, than a software-style marketplace would earn.

The model leans on repeat business. Repeat customers produced 80.15% of Manufacturing revenue in FY26, net revenue retention was 120%, and the manufacturing order book stood at ₹12,370 crore, up from ₹6,170 crore in FY24, according to the updated draft prospectus. The top 10 customers accounted for 35.90% of operating revenue, INDmoney reports.

Dhan’s summary of the prospectus counts 6,979 third-party suppliers across 26 countries and 26 company-owned facilities. International markets supplied nearly 30% of Manufacturing revenue.

What the FY26 numbers show

Revenue from operations rose 40.4% to ₹15,913.3 crore in FY26. The headline loss is harder to read. Consolidated net loss widened to ₹1,606.2 crore from ₹370.7 crore, Inc42 reported, including exceptional charges linked to pre-IPO share conversion changes and a ₹453 crore impairment in the discontinued civil infrastructure business.

Source: as listed, as of October 2026. FY24 revenue was reported earlier as ₹14,436 crore; the lower figure appears to reflect restatement for discontinued operations, which StartupIndiaX has not independently confirmed.

The latest quarter points the same way. Operating revenue from continuing operations rose 55.4% to ₹4,117.9 crore in Q1 FY27, while the total net loss narrowed to ₹733 crore, of which ₹64.1 crore came from continuing operations (Inc42). Adjusted profit before tax moved from a ₹248.8 crore loss in FY24 to a ₹45.7 crore profit in FY26, a figure the company defines itself.

Funding and backers

Inc42's company page lists about $868.8 million raised across 15 rounds, while Crunchbase data cited by Clay in April 2026 shows $859 million. Round labels differ between sources, so the table below sticks to dates, amounts and named investors.

Source: as listed, as of October 2026. Only disclosed rounds are shown. Reuters put the Dec 2024 valuation at about $3.1 billion.

Early backers are also cashing out part of their holdings. Peak XV, Accel India, Lightspeed and Kae Capital increased the shares they plan to sell when the issue was resized, YourStory reported. Before you model any of this, the Startup Valuation Calculator in the StartupIndiaX Founder Toolkit is a quick way to see how a round's price shapes a valuation.

The founders' own stake and share sale

Before the IPO, Moneycontrol figures cited by Outlook Business in August 2026 put Srinath Ramakkrushnan at 8.36% and Acharya at 7.53%, behind Greenoaks (8.61%) and ahead of Accel India V (7.74%).

Source: as listed. Stakes should be confirmed against the final prospectus.

Both founders are selling 1.42 crore shares each, and the promoter-group entity Creovate Innovation up to 2.30 crore. At the upper band of ₹151, our own calculation puts each founder's sale at about ₹214 crore (roughly $22.6 million at about ₹95 per dollar, the late-August 2026 level). Creovate's block would be about ₹347 crore (roughly $36.6 million). These are gross figures before tax and costs, and an editorial estimate.

There is a back story. In July 2025, Economic Times reported that Acharya and Ramakkrushnan planned to put ₹600 crore into Zetwerk by raising personal debt through Creovate, which would raise their stake by about 2%. Moneycontrol added that the board approved 6.46 crore preference shares for this, and that Creovate had secured ₹497 crore of debt so far. The sources we reviewed do not say how Creovate will use its IPO proceeds. If you are weighing how a founder's share sale affects ownership, the Funding Round Dilution Calculator in the Founder Toolkit helps with the arithmetic.

Net worth: why this article gives no figure

Searches for Amrit Acharya's net worth bring up a lot of noise, including unrelated people with similar names. StartupTalky lists ₹3,730 crore as of February 2024, but we could not trace the basis for that number, and StartupIndiaX has not verified it.

What can be checked is narrower. Acharya's pre-IPO stake was 7.53% (Moneycontrol via Outlook Business, August 2026), the company is being valued at ₹25,583 crore post-issue at the upper band, and part of his holding is being sold. Company valuation and personal wealth are different things, and we will not convert one into the other.

The Ayr Energy dispute

Zetwerk's biggest legal fight before the IPO is now settled. In October 2025, Zetwerk and its US subsidiary sued Ayr Energy and its founder, Anirudh Reddy, a former senior Zetwerk executive, in a Texas court. Zetwerk alleged that Reddy set up Ayr while still at Zetwerk and misused confidential business information. Ayr filed counterclaims alleging theft of proprietary information, trademark infringement, false advertising, fraud and unfair competition. Zetwerk disputed those claims.

Status as of September 2026 (per Inc42): the parties settled, agreeing to dismiss all claims before the Texas Business Court, and a Bengaluru court approved a separate settlement with Reddy. They also agreed to ask the US International Trade Commission to end a related inquiry. The terms were not disclosed in the sources we reviewed.

Zetwerk founders timeline

Source: as listed, as of October 2026.

Where Zetwerk sits among its peers

Zetwerk's listed comparisons are imperfect. Reuters pointed out that electronics maker Dixon Technologies went public in 2017, a year before Acharya co-founded Zetwerk, which shows how late a platform like this arrives at the exchange. GMPIPOWatch names Moglix and OfBusiness as competitors, and OfBusiness is where Srinath worked earlier in his career. The prospectus, as relayed by ipowatch, says no listed company in India or globally has a comparable business model. StartupIndiaX has not independently checked that claim.

Lessons for founders

Test the sales cycle early. Zetwerk's software drew praise from GE and L&T and still did not scale quickly enough. Three months in, the founders read the signal and changed course.

Own the outcome, not just the introduction. The shift from a tool to a managed marketplace meant taking responsibility for orders actually shipping.

Diversify before you need to. When April 2020 cut revenue by 90%, the move to a mix of industrial and consumer work helped the company recover.

Read your own margins. Terra91 supplies about 41% of revenue at a 1.24% EBITDA margin. Growth that thin needs a clear role in the story.

What to watch on October 23

The Zetwerk founders story has not finished. Allotment is expected on October 21 and listing on October 23. We will update this article with the final subscription numbers, the listing price and the founders' post-listing holdings, and refresh the date at the top when we do.

If you have worked with Zetwerk, built in manufacturing, or have your own founder story to tell, share it in the comments or send it to the StartupIndiaX team.

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