B2B On-Demand Manufacturing Platform Karkhana.io Raises USD 1.5 million

Karkhana.io, a B2B on-demand manufacturing online platform, announced its seed round funding of US$ 1.5 million (Around INR 11 Cr) led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India. After funding announcement Karkhana.io said it will use this funding to fuel further growth and establish their technology platform to meet demand for custom manufacturing in India’s manufacturing industry.

Idea behind Karkhana.io B2B On-Demand Manufacturing Startup

The Mumbai based Karkhana.io was founded by Ms. Sonam Motwani in June 2018. She is an IIT Bombay passout with specialization in Aerospace Engineering. Sonam worked for few years in design and fabrication for some well known brands before founding Karkhana.io.

Karkhana.io aims to make it easy for businesses to find suitable manufacturers for their designed parts. In the words of Ms. Sonam Motwani herself “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 Seamless Manufacturing Business Model

CableCommunity.com team itself tried out Karkhana.io’s platform. After opening Karkhana.io, you are required to first upload your design file in the supported format. Then you select the material and manufacturing process of your choice (a drop box for 3D printing, sheet metal work, CNC machining and injection moulding) with name, email address and other details.

After this, the website offers manufacturing recommendations for review, if required, and revisions can be uploaded directly to your account on the website. A call or visit could also be scheduled with Karkhana.io engineer for design-related help.

Once the design is finalized an estimate of cost and turnaround time is provided through Karkhana.io’s pricing algorithm. This estimation accounts for manufacturing complexity and material utilization. Final order with quantity required can now be placed with different payment options. The progress of manufacturing can be tracked online. Getting a reliable vendor for manufacturing small parts or small quantities is still a pain point which businesses across India have to face. If Karkhana.io is able to efficiently solve this issue as well as scale up its business model then definitely it can be a successful startup in coming times.