Lithium has change into the default alternative for battery-powered methods, however its limitations — from risky provide chains to brief lifespans — have gotten more and more tough to disregard. Offgrid Power Labs, a deep-tech startup primarily based in India, needs to make lithium much less central, particularly in the case of battery storage.
The seven-year-old startup, incubated at IIT Kanpur, has developed a proprietary zinc-bromine-based battery system as an alternative choice to lithium-ion expertise. Referred to as ZincGel, it delivers 80–90% of the vitality effectivity of standard lithium batteries, however at a considerably decrease levelized price of storage, the startup mentioned.
As energy demand grows worldwide, international locations are ramping up efforts to develop renewable vitality storage. India, as a distinguished nation on this regard, goals to extend its non-fossil vitality capability tenfold — from 50 gigawatts to 500 gigawatts — by 2030. New Delhi can also be focusing on 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 methods within the nation. Nonetheless, like many world markets, India faces a key problem: China’s dominance over the lithium provide chain.
Offgrid Power Labs is betting that its ZincGel battery expertise can ease provide constraints by utilizing broadly accessible supplies and providing a cheaper various to lithium-based methods.
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 only should we be addressing a gap in the market from an application standpoint, but we should also make it financially viable, because there have been technologies and batteries in the past globally, which have the solution, but they’re so expensive that they’re not widely 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 Heart, together with Brindan Tulachan (additionally a Ph.D. from IIT Kanpur), Rishi Srivastava, and Ankur Agarwal. The group noticed that whereas lithium batteries are well-suited for mobility, the stationary storage market was underserved — and wanted batteries which can be safer, extra resilient, and constructed on a provide chain that’s simpler to entry, Kusurkar instructed TechCrunch.
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The startup spent its first six years creating battery expertise and has thus far secured greater than 25 IP households and over 50 IP property throughout markets, together with the U.S., U.Ok., India, in addition to China, Australia, and Japan. The battery relies on zinc-bromide chemistry with a proprietary water-based electrolyte, leading to a low danger of fireplace.
ZincGel can also be able to dealing with longer discharges (6–12 hours) a number of instances all through its lifetime and might 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 just isn’t a brand new idea, and a few corporations have already supplied zinc-bromide-based batteries, together with the Nasdaq-listed EOS Power Enterprises. Nonetheless, Kusurkar famous that Offgrid Power Labs makes use of its patented property that assist carry down the associated fee. The ZincGel batteries also can scale back the necessity for utilizing graphite, which helps carry down their manufacturing price.
“Ultimately, customers care about the same performance, better price, or better performance, same price,” Srivastava instructed TechCrunch.
Offgrid Power Labs’ expertise can also be designed to permit for tweaking or sub-optimizing the battery primarily based on the applying. Which means that these zinc batteries can function independently of environmental situations and supply vitality storage even at temperatures as little as minus 10 levels Celsius, Srivastava mentioned.
The startup is focusing on industries with net-zero targets that wish to maximize renewable vitality use by integrating battery storage. Its batteries are additionally being explored for functions comparable to peak shifting and decentralized, off-grid vitality options. Shell — which invested in Offgrid throughout its seed spherical via its company enterprise arm — and Tata Energy are among the many early testers. The beginning can also be in talks with world gamers, together with Europe’s Enel Group, to develop batteries tailor-made to their particular use circumstances.
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.Ok. to show its expertise to early clients subsequent 12 months.
The UK facility could 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.Ok. — and never India — was chosen for its first facility, Srivastava mentioned, as Europe presents a powerful ecosystem and is already a hub for battery manufacturing. The startup already has co-founders Kusurkar and Tulachan primarily based within the U.Ok. 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 substances producer, which now holds a 21% stake within the startup, together with participation from Ankur Capital.
Srivastava instructed 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.
