After IPO, Zetwerk CEO reveals father’s doubts over his return to India from US: 'I walked away from Indian dream of job abroad'

Amrit Acharya recalled returning to India from the US at 29 to start Zetwerk despite his professor father’s doubts.

Zetwerk co-founder and CEO Amrit Acharya was 29 when he returned to India from the US with his wife, Sharanya, to build a life in his home country. His decision to give up the prospect of a job abroad left his father, a professor, sceptical.

Zetwerk co-founder and CEO Amrit Acharya with his family on the NSE stage.

Nearly a decade later, as Acharya took the manufacturing company public, his father stood beside him at the National Stock Exchange to ring the listing bell. “He is not sceptical any more,” the elated entrepreneur confirmed in an X post yesterday.

Zetwerk’s stock market debut

Zetwerk Manufacturing Businesses made its stock market debut on Friday, October 23, opening at a premium of over 5% before falling more than 11% below its issue price of ₹151 amid a broader market selloff.

Founded in 2018, Zetwerk has grown from coordinating manufacturing orders across supplier networks to operating 26 factories across India, the US, Germany and Spain. It also works with nearly 7,000 suppliers across 26 countries.

Following the listing, the company's market capitalisation stood at ₹22,465.82 crore on the BSE and ₹22,477.68 crore on the NSE.

Reflecting on the journey in a post on X, Acharya spoke about building a global business with his co-founders, who, like him, were in their 20s and came from small towns without family connections. He also shared a personal milestone, revealing that he and Sharanya welcomed their daughter last month.

“I was 29 when we started Zetwerk. My wife Sharanya and I had just returned from the US to build our lives in India. Last month, we welcomed our daughter. Last week, we took the company public. It is yet to sink in,” he wrote.

Acharya said his father's initial doubts stemmed from his decision to walk away from the conventional path of securing a job overseas. He described Zetwerk's growth as an example of how India's entrepreneurial landscape has changed, allowing young founders to raise capital, build businesses and expand internationally.

“My father, a professor, was sceptical. I had walked away from the traditional Indian dream of a job abroad,” he wrote.

Zetwerk wants to modernise manufacturing

Acharya said the next phase of global progress, spanning defence modernisation, the energy transition, space exploration and artificial intelligence, would depend on the ability to manufacture physical products at scale.

“The world today is on the cusp of enormous progress: defence modernisation, energy transition, space exploration and AI buildout. Much of this progress faces a common bottleneck: building physical things in the real world,” he wrote.

He argued that existing manufacturing systems needed to evolve to meet the demands of these industries. Zetwerk's approach, he said, combines engineering expertise with technology to connect India's fragmented manufacturing ecosystem, from small workshops to large production facilities.

The company calls this model the “Universal Factory”, bringing together its supplier network, owned facilities, customers and employees through a common system intended to standardise quality and delivery.

Zetwerk reported revenue of ₹15,913 crore in the last financial year, while its manufacturing order book stood at ₹12,370 crore, according to figures cited by investor Accel. Around 80% of its manufacturing revenue came from repeat customers.

Acharya said the company's goal was to make even complex, multimillion-dollar manufacturing orders “boringly predictable” for customers, with a focus on simplicity, transparency and reliability.

'He is not sceptical any more'

For Acharya, the public listing was also a moment that brought his journey back to where it began: his father's doubts about his decision to return to India.

“On IPO day, my father stood beside me as we rang the bell at the National Stock Exchange. He is not sceptical any more :)” he wrote.

Zetwerk's initial public offering was subscribed 3.06 times by the final day of bidding. The company raised ₹2,251.23 crore from anchor investors, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and Nomura. Its public issue comprised a fresh issue of shares worth ₹2,830 crore and an offer for sale of 14.45 crore shares by existing shareholders, taking the total issue size to approximately ₹5,012 crore.

Looking ahead, Acharya said Zetwerk intended to follow in the footsteps of industrial institutions such as GE, L&T and Tata, which he credited with helping build the modern world.

“Today, Indian manufacturing is having its moment, and we intend to build what comes next,” he wrote, reiterating his ambition to build a world-class industrial institution in India.

“We are committed to building a world-class industrial institution out of India,” Acharya concluded.

(With inputs from agencies)