Whizzo in talks for $26M Series B, says report

Whizzo, a materials science-based manufacturing startup, is in talks to raise around $26M in a Series B funding round that could be co-led by Aavishkaar Capital and Bertelsmann, according to a report. The round is not yet finalised.

Founded in 2024 by Shrestha Kukreja, Whizzo claims to be India's first contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) platform for technical textiles manufacturing. That positions the company in a segment where textiles are engineered for performance rather than purely aesthetic use, spanning applications that demand specific mechanical, chemical or thermal properties.

The prospective Series B arrives roughly six months after Whizzo raised around $15M in a Series A round led by Fundamentum. The pace between the two rounds is notable for a company founded only two years ago, and it points to a young venture still in the early stages of building out capacity in a capital-intensive manufacturing vertical.

Should the talks conclude at the reported figure and with both named investors co-leading, Aavishkaar Capital and Bertelsmann would be backing a business that sits at the intersection of materials science and industrial production — a combination that has drawn increased attention in India's deep tech and advanced manufacturing conversations, though technical textiles remain a smaller niche than consumer-facing textile manufacturing. Aavishkaar Capital is known for impact-oriented investing, while Bertelsmann is a global media, services and investment group; the reported co-leadership would bring together two distinct pools of capital into a single round.

For now, the details remain unconfirmed. The reported $26M is a figure under discussion, and neither the company nor the investors have publicly confirmed a closed transaction. Whizzo's Series A was led by Fundamentum, and the reported Series B would represent a substantial step up in round size from that earlier raise.

What the new capital would fund has not been disclosed. If completed, the round would be the latest in a series of raises for an Indian manufacturing startup attempting to build a specialised CDMO platform where technical textile development and production are offered as an integrated service — a model that, if it scales, would sit between textile research and full-scale industrial manufacturing.

The story is developing, and the composition of the round, its final size and any additional participants could change before a formal announcement.