India’s Offgrid raises $15M to make lithium not obligatory for battery garage by way of NewsFlicks

Lithium has transform the default selection for battery-powered methods, however its boundaries — from risky provide chains to brief lifespans — are turning into more and more tough to forget about. Offgrid Power Labs, a deep-tech startup founded in India, needs to make lithium much less central, particularly with regards to battery garage.

The seven-year-old startup, incubated at IIT Kanpur, has evolved a proprietary zinc-bromine-based battery device as a substitute for lithium-ion era. Known as ZincGel, it delivers 80–90% of the power potency of standard lithium batteries, however at a considerably decrease levelized value of garage, the startup stated.

As energy call for grows international, nations are ramping up efforts to enlarge renewable power garage. India, as a distinguished country on this regard, goals to extend its non-fossil power capability tenfold — from 50 gigawatts to 500 gigawatts — by way of 2030. New Delhi may be concentrated on 236 gigawatt-hours of battery power garage capability by way of 2031–32 and introduced a ₹54 billion (kind of $612 million) investment planin June to broaden 30 gigawatt-hour battery garage methods within the nation. On the other hand, like many world markets, India faces a key problem: China’s dominance over the lithium provide chain.

Offgrid Power Labs is having a bet that its ZincGel battery era can ease provide constraints by way of the use of broadly to be had fabrics and providing a more cost effective selection to lithium-based methods.

Now, the startup has raised $15 million in Collection A investment to scale up its operations. It plans to construct a 10-megawatt-hour demonstration facility in the United Kingdom, anticipated to be able by way of the primary quarter of 2026, and start commercializing ZincGel within the quarters that practice — with a gigafactory in India deliberate as the following section.

“No longer best will have to we be addressing an opening available in the market from an software point of view, however we will have to additionally make it financially viable, as a result of there were applied sciences and batteries previously globally, that have the answer, however they’re so dear that they’re now not broadly followed,” stated 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 Heart, in conjunction with Brindan Tulachan (additionally a Ph.D. from IIT Kanpur), Rishi Srivastava, and Ankur Agarwal. The crew noticed that whilst lithium batteries are well-suited for mobility, the desk bound garage marketplace used to be underserved — and wanted batteries which can be more secure, extra resilient, and constructed on a provide chain this is more uncomplicated to get right of entry to, Kusurkar informed TechCrunch.

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

ZincGel may be in a position to dealing with longer discharges (6–12 hours) more than one instances all over its lifetime and will final two times so long as an ordinary lithium-ion battery, Kusurkar stated. Moreover, the battery makes use of a carbon-based cathode for each rapid charging and discharging.

Zinc in batteries isn’t a brand new thought, and a few corporations have already presented zinc-bromide-based batteries, together with the Nasdaq-listed EOS Power Enterprises. On the other hand, Kusurkar famous that Offgrid Power Labs makes use of its patented belongings that lend a hand deliver down the fee. The ZincGel batteries too can scale back the desire for the use of graphite, which is helping deliver down their manufacturing value.

“In the end, shoppers care about the similar efficiency, higher value, or higher efficiency, identical value,” Srivastava informed TechCrunch.

Offgrid Power Labs’ era may be designed to permit for tweaking or sub-optimizing the battery in response to the appliance. Because of this those zinc batteries can function independently of environmental stipulations and supply power garage even at temperatures as little as minus 10 levels Celsius, Srivastava stated.

The startup is concentrated on industries with net-zero objectives that wish to maximize renewable power use by way of integrating battery garage. Its batteries also are being explored for packages equivalent to top moving and decentralized, off-grid power answers. Shell — which invested in Offgrid all the way through its seed spherical via its company undertaking arm — and Tata Energy are some of the early testers. The beginning may be in talks with world avid gamers, together with Europe’s Enel Workforce, to broaden batteries adapted to their particular use instances.

Up to now, Offgrid Power Labs has constructed its battery tech manually at a tinkering lab in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida. On the other hand, the startup plans to leverage its facility within the U.Okay. to display its era to early shoppers subsequent 12 months.

The United Kingdom facility may have a carbon footprint 50% less than that of an ordinary lithium battery gigafactory, Srivastava stated, including that the startup has opted for more practical production processes to scale back each capital and operational bills.

Requested why the U.Okay. — and now not India — used to be selected for its first facility, Srivastava stated, as Europe gives a powerful ecosystem and is already a hub for battery production. The startup already has co-founders Kusurkar and Tulachan founded within the U.Okay. to lend a hand with native operations. Nonetheless, the startup sees India as certainly one of its key markets as soon as the batteries are able for commercialization in 2026.

The Collection A spherical used to be led by way of Archean Chemical substances, a Chennai-based forte chemical substances producer, which now holds a 21% stake within the startup, in conjunction with participation from Ankur Capital.

Srivastava informed TechCrunch that Archean’s participation is a strategic alignment, because the publicly indexed corporate has substantial experience in bromine production and provide chain control.

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