India’s Offgrid raises $15M to make lithium optional for battery storage

Lithium has turn out to be the default alternative for battery-powered techniques, however its limitations — from unstable provide chains to brief lifespans — have gotten more and more tough to disregard. Offgrid Energy Labs, a deep-tech startup primarily based in India, desires to make lithium much less central, particularly relating to battery storage.

The seven-year-old startup, incubated at IIT Kanpur, has developed a proprietary zinc-bromine-based battery system as a substitute for lithium-ion know-how. Known as ZincGel, it delivers 80–90% of the vitality effectivity of typical lithium batteries, however at a considerably decrease levelized value of storage, the startup mentioned.

As energy demand grows worldwide, nations are ramping up efforts to increase renewable vitality storage. India, as a outstanding nation on this regard, goals to extend its non-fossil vitality capability tenfold — from 50 gigawatts to 500 gigawatts — by 2030. New Delhi can be targeting 236 gigawatt-hours of battery vitality storage capability by 2031–32 and introduced a ₹54 billion (roughly $612 million) funding planin June to develop 30 gigawatt-hour battery storage techniques within the nation. Nonetheless, like many international markets, India faces a key problem: China’s dominance over the lithium provide chain.

Offgrid Power Labs is betting that its ZincGel battery know-how can ease provide constraints by utilizing extensively accessible supplies and providing a cheaper various to lithium-based techniques.

Now, the startup has raised $15 million in Sequence A funding to scale up its operations. It plans to construct a 10-megawatt-hour demonstration facility within the UK, anticipated to be prepared by the primary quarter of 2026, and start commercializing ZincGel within the quarters that observe — with a gigafactory in India deliberate as the subsequent section.

“Not solely ought to we be addressing a niche available in the market from an software standpoint, however we also needs to make it financially viable, as a result of there have been applied sciences and batteries prior to now globally, which have the answer, however they’re so costly that they’re not extensively adopted,” mentioned Tejas Kusurkar, co-founder and CEO of Offgrid Power Labs, in an interview.

Kusurkar, who has a Ph.D. from IIT Kanpur, co-founded Offgrid Power Labs in 2018 on the institute’s Startup Incubation and Innovation Middle, together with Brindan Tulachan (additionally a Ph.D. from IIT Kanpur), Rishi Srivastava, and Ankur Agarwal. The workforce noticed that whereas lithium batteries are well-suited for mobility, the stationary storage market was underserved — and wanted batteries which are safer, extra resilient, and constructed on a provide chain that’s simpler to entry, Kusurkar advised TechCrunch.

The startup spent its first six years growing battery know-how and has to this point secured greater than 25 IP households and over 50 IP property throughout markets, together with the U.S., U.Okay., India, in addition to China, Australia, and Japan. The battery is predicated on zinc-bromide chemistry with a proprietary water-based electrolyte, leading to a low danger of fireplace.

ZincGel can be able to dealing with longer discharges (6–12 hours) a number of instances all through its lifetime and may final twice so long as a typical lithium-ion battery, Kusurkar mentioned. Moreover, the battery makes use of a carbon-based cathode for each quick charging and discharging.

Zinc in batteries isn’t a brand new idea, and a few corporations have already supplied zinc-bromide-based batteries, together with the Nasdaq-listed EOS Energy Enterprises. Nonetheless, Kusurkar famous that Offgrid Power Labs makes use of its patented property that assist convey down the associated fee. The ZincGel batteries may scale back the necessity for utilizing graphite, which helps convey down their manufacturing value.

“In the end, prospects care about the identical efficiency, higher value, or higher efficiency, identical value,” Srivastava advised TechCrunch.

Offgrid Power Labs’ know-how can be designed to permit for tweaking or sub-optimizing the battery primarily based on the appliance. Which means these zinc batteries can function independently of environmental circumstances and supply vitality storage even at temperatures as little as minus 10 levels Celsius, Srivastava mentioned.

The startup is concentrating on industries with net-zero targets that need to maximize renewable vitality use by integrating battery storage. Its batteries are additionally being explored for purposes corresponding to peak shifting and decentralized, off-grid vitality options. Shell — which invested in Offgrid throughout its seed spherical by means of its company enterprise arm — and Tata Energy are among the many early testers. The beginning can be in talks with international gamers, together with Europe’s Enel Group, to develop batteries tailor-made to their particular use instances.

To this point, Offgrid Power Labs has constructed its battery tech manually at a tinkering lab in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida. Nonetheless, the startup plans to leverage its facility within the U.Okay. to exhibit its know-how to early prospects subsequent yr.

The UK facility can have a carbon footprint 50% decrease than that of a typical lithium battery gigafactory, Srivastava mentioned, including that the startup has opted for less complicated manufacturing processes to scale back each capital and operational bills.

Requested why the U.Okay. — and never India — was chosen for its first facility, Srivastava mentioned, as Europe presents a robust ecosystem and is already a hub for battery manufacturing. The startup already has co-founders Kusurkar and Tulachan primarily based within the U.Okay. to assist with native operations. Nonetheless, the startup sees India as one in every of its key markets as soon as the batteries are prepared for commercialization in 2026.

The Sequence A spherical was led by Archean Chemical compounds, a Chennai-based specialty chemical compounds producer, which now holds a 21% stake within the startup, together with participation from Ankur Capital.

Srivastava advised TechCrunch that Archean’s participation is a strategic alignment, because the publicly listed firm has appreciable experience in bromine manufacturing and provide chain administration.

The startup is valued at round $58 million post-money.