Mumbai, Maharashtra, India | 14th January 2021: Karkhana.io, a B2B on-demand manufacturing platform, announced its seed round financing of USD1.5 million led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India (Vertex Ventures SEA & India). The company also saw participation from several industry leaders and angel investors. With this funding, Karkhana.io aims to fuel further growth and establish their technology platform to meet the burgeoning demand for custom manufacturing in India’s manufacturing industry.
 
Established in June 2018, Karkhana.io aims to digitise and streamline the manufacturing industry in India. 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.”
 
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: coordinating production and delivery for multiple small parts, delays, inconsistency in quality, lack of transparency, etc. By working closely with a large network of manufacturers, Karkhana.io can integrate operations for clients, as well as gain control over the quality of work delivered. All this can be done through Karkhana.io’s online platform, which has the tools for manufacturers to manage projects more effectively while providing visibility of progress on projects for customers.
 
Karkhana.io’s manufacturing capabilities encompasses 3D printing, sheet metal work, CNC machining and injection moulding. The young start-up 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.
 
“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” said Kanika Mayar, Executive Director at Vertex Ventures SEA & India.
 
Notwithstanding the fact that 2020 was a somewhat lacklustre year for the manufacturing space in India, Karkhana.io’s unique business model helped them break out as they added new clients and continued to scale the team as well as revenues through the year.
 
Reflecting on what has helped the budding company thrive amidst the difficult economic landscape, Sonam said, “Bringing about change in an established industry requires grit, innovative thinking as well as action – which we have cultivated at Karkhana.io since Day 1. Although managing operations was a serious challenge, when the pandemic hit, we tapped on these capabilities and created new solutions that kept us growing during these challenging times.”
 
For more information about Karkhana.io, please proceed here.

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