Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India has spearheaded a seed funding round in B2B on-demand manufacturing platform Karkhana.io. The seed funding round was worth USD 1.5mn and the round also saw participation of other investors. However, the names of other investors were not disclosed.
The startup said that it will use the seed funding to ramp up its technology for meeting demand in India’s manufacturing sector. Most of its technological up-gradation will constitute of building its on-demand cloud manufacturing platform.
Founder and CEO, Sonam Motwani said, “Finding the right manufacturing vendor is a tedious and time-consuming process. The industry is still highly fragmented. There is no easy way to figure out which manufacturing process to go for, where to manufacture, and what is a fair price to pay, etc. We want to change this so that new products can go from prototyping to production seamlessly at a much quicker pace.”
Incorporated in June 2018, Karkhana.io aims to completely digitize and streamline the manufacturing industry in India. Karkhana.io’s mission involves working with various types and sizes of manufacturers throughout the country and alleviating pain points that are prevalent across the supply chain. This includes coordinating production and delivery for multiple small parts, delays, inconsistency in quality, lack of transparency, etc.
The startup claims that it is already enabling building cutting edge technology in India – from deep-sea underwater robots to satellite and rocket for outer space to components for electric vehicles, IOT and FMCG industries.
The startup also claimed that despite 2020 was a very painful year for the Manufacturing sector, it still managed to add new clients and continued to scale the team as well as revenues through the year.
Commenting on the funding, Kanika Mayar, Executive Director at Vertex Ventures SEA & India said “Manufacturing is one of the largest sectors in India but suffers from extreme inefficiency and capacity underutilization. Through its online platform, Karkhana.io is well placed to disrupt the status quo and enable production processes which are simpler, faster and more transparent. Sonam brings tremendous expertise in her field, and we are excited to partner with Sonam and Karkhana.io in building the next generation of manufacturing services for India and the world”