Zetwerk elevates finance head Ankit Fatehpuria as fifth co-founder

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Indian B2B marketplace unicorn, Zetwerk Manufacturing Businesses, on July 7 announced the elevation of Ankit Fatehpuria as the fifth co-founder of Zetwerk. Fatehpuria, who joined Zetwerk in March 2019, was earlier responsible for setting up and running the finance function for the company.

Zetwerk has now joined the list of companies like Livspace, Practo, and Zomato, among others to elevate a senior executive to the founder position.

He also seeded and scaled various business verticals for Zetwerk. In addition, Fatehpuria has also been "instrumental” in initiating relationships with banks as well as financial institutions for the company, both within India and abroad, Zetwerk said.

Announcing his elevation as the fifth co-founder, Zetwerk said Fatehpuria will now be even more closely involved in helping shape the company’s future towards the mission to modernise manufacturing and to build an enduring company.

Before joining Zetwerk, he served as a Category Finance Manager at ITC and Internal Auditor at Indian Oil Corporation.

Fatehpuria is a Chartered Accountant, Company Secretary, and an alumnus of St Xavier’s College, Kolkata. The other co-founders of Zetwerk are Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Vishal Chaudhary, Rahul Sharma and Amrit Acharya.

Interestingly, the move to elevate a top executive to founder is a growing trend among Indian start-ups, to reward talent and recognise core members of the team.

Also Read: The Big Question: Should executives be elevated to co-founders?

In the beginning of June, KKR-backed omni-channel home interiors and renovation unicorn, Livspace, elevated its Chief Business Officer (CBO), Saurabh Jain as Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of its India operations

In May, Practo announced the elevation of its long-term executive and growth head, Siddhartha Nihalani to the position of Co-founder.

Earlier in 2021, ahead of its IPO, Zomato elevated Aakriti Chopra to the co-founder position. In addition, Rebel Foods elevated five senior executives, Sagar Kochhar, Raghav Joshi, Ankush Grover, Ankur Sharma, and Soumyadeep Barman as co-founders, last year saying it had room for more. These executives earlier held the positions of Global Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Executive of India Business Unit, Chief Executive of South East Asia, Head of Product and Supply Chain, and Chief Technology Officer, respectively.

Also Read: Exclusive: Byju’s COO Mrinal Mohit likely to head India operations as Raveendran focuses on global business

Recently, Moneycontrol had also reported Byju's, India's most valued startup, is preparing to elevate Chief Operating Officer Mrinal Mohit to a larger role as Byju Raveendran, the founder, and chief executive officer, shifts focus to global operations, according to people familiar with the matter.

Currently, Zetwerk said it is valued at $2.7 billion. On June 30, the company announced acquisitions in three companies for a cumulative sum of Rs 100 crore.

The company acquired a majority stake in Pinaka Aerospace Solution, in a cash plus equity deal, a majority stake in SharpTanks, an engineering and construction company operating in the oil and gas sector, and also purchased the Wardha fabrication unit of Wheels India.