At least a dozen companies built by former Zetwerk executives have together raised more than $130 million.
Salil Srivastava ran the chemicals division at Zetwerk three years ago. Scimplify, the specialty chemicals company he co-founded in 2023, has a reported 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.
Srivastava is one of a growing cohort of former Zetwerk executives who have built venture-backed companies in specialty chemicals, defence electronics and technical textiles. There are at least a dozen such companies, which together have raised more than $130 million. Their rise comes as Zetwerk prepares to list on the stock exchanges on Friday, October 23.
Indian manufacturing startups have raised $1.92 billion across 127 deals so far in 2026, against $164 million across 31 deals in all of 2020, according to Venture Intelligence data.
Zetwerk’s ₹5,012 crore IPO was subscribed 3.1 times. It lists on Friday at a valuation of up to ₹25,583 crore at the top of its price band.
Scimplify is targeting $400 million in annualised revenue within a year. It plans to put $7.5 million of its new funding into expanding in the US, which already accounts for about 30 per cent of its business.
Source: Business Standard
