Why Fundamentum led Whizzo’s $15 million raise
The startup works with customers from ideas and laboratory research to prototyping and large-scale production, using its in-house materials laboratory and a network of partner factories.
The round also sees participation from Korea-based deeptech investor LB Investment (the first direct bet in India), as well as existing backers Lightspeed Venture Partners and BEENEXT, Whizzo said in a press release on Tuesday.
Whizzo was founded in 2024 by Shrestha Kukreja, a former Zetwerk executive who now serves as chief executive. The startup had previously raised $4.2 million in seed funding in January 2025.
At the core of its business, the startup operates an in-house materials science laboratory for R&D and prototyping and uses a network of partner factories for large-scale production; He believes this approach has helped him reduce product development timelines from the industry’s typical 12-15 months to a few weeks.
Investor bet
Fundamentum believes Whizzo’s research-led approach—jointly developing and designing the final product, not just sourcing and reselling it—can offer better pricing power than an ordinary buy-sell manufacturing business that competes primarily on cost.
Fundamentum believes Whizzo’s research-driven approach can offer better pricing power than an ordinary trading manufacturing business that competes primarily on cost.
Fundamentum co-founder and general partner Ashish Kumar said Whizzo fits the fund’s “revenue-first” approach to applied deep technology and is still in a relatively underexplored category.
“Whizzo ticked three boxes for us when it comes to investing in a deeptech firm, including applied deeptech, a space that isn’t overcrowded, and a founder who understands the market. And our fund’s thesis on this bet is simple… this was a revenue-generating company focused on manufacturing in the deeptech segment.” Kumar told Mint in an interview.
Kukreja, meanwhile, said Whizzo’s faster development cycle comes from fixing what he calls broken workflow in technical textiles, where the lab, factory and buyer often operate as separate units and only come together late in the process.
“Laboratories operate in silos divided between manufacturers and buyers, manufacturers, R&D labs, and merchandising and vendor units,” he said. “When you equalize the costs, you will encounter other challenges… but because we own the process from idea to production, we can turn things around faster.”
Even as companies try to piece together that workflow, he argued, the biggest gap is capabilities like science talent and a customer-facing R&D engine that can predict what buyers will need next.
Whizzo describes itself as a contract development and manufacturing company (CDMO), a business model more commonly seen in the pharmaceutical industry. A CDMO is where an expert partner helps a company develop a product in the laboratory, prove that the product works, and then produce the product at scale.
Whizzo says it takes a similar approach for specialty fabrics, combining in-house research and prototyping with outsourced production through partner factories so customers don’t need to manage a lab and multiple manufacturers separately.
Kukreja also said Whizzo currently serves more than 100 customers and expects that number to reach around 130 by the end of January. He also said exports were already a key part of Whizzo’s business, with the startup supplying “18-odd” countries so far and aiming to expand to “30 to 35” by the end of the financial year.
He also added that Whizzo ships to customers in Latin America, the Middle East and Europe, including Colombia and Mexico, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Germany and Italy.
Although the company does not share revenue figures, Kukreja said repeat business is strong. “60% of our current revenue and 70% of our order pipeline comes from past customers and repeat customers,” he said.
Fundamentum’s Kumar said a key risk in manufacturing-focused categories is that they become commodity businesses, especially when imitators accumulate following a financing announcement. “If you don’t have the IP (intellectual property), then you become commoditized very quickly,” he said.
“Fundamentum is placing its biggest bet on Whizzo’s ability to create differentiated products through R&D and, over time, intellectual property, because without this, even a fast-growing manufacturing business can quickly be pushed into price-driven competition,” Kumar added.
Over the next 6-12 months, Kumar said he wants Fundamentum to implement the startup’s business plan, improve working capital cycles in selected categories and produce more “lab-grown research” that can make money beyond customer-focused projects.
Many private equity firms are now creating private pools or sharpening their thesis to back manufacturing and industrial technology plays, from electronics and defense to supply chain and materials.
Mint reported in July of last year that venture capital firms such as Amicus Capital, Trident Growth Partners, RevX Capital, Veloce Opportunities Fund, Finnolve, Folks Motor and Arka Investment Advisory had raised or launched vehicles with meaningful exposure to production.
Some notable deals include specialty chemicals platform Scimplify’s $40 million Series B round jointly led by Accel and Bertelsmann India Investments in March 2025. Advanced manufacturing startup Ethereal Machines also raised $13 million in a Series A round led by Peak XV Partners and Steadview Capital in June 2024.
