Lithium has grow to be the default selection for battery-powered methods, however its limitations — from unstable provide chains to quick lifespans — have gotten more and more tough to disregard. Offgrid Vitality Labs, a deep-tech startup based mostly in India, desires to make lithium much less central, particularly in relation 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 price of storage, the startup mentioned.
As energy demand grows worldwide, nations are ramping up efforts to broaden 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 Vitality Labs is betting that its ZincGel battery know-how can ease provide constraints through the use of broadly obtainable supplies and providing a more cost effective various to lithium-based methods.
Now, the startup has raised $15 million in Collection 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 comply with — with a gigafactory in India deliberate as the subsequent section.
“Not solely ought to we be addressing a spot available in the market from an utility standpoint, however we must also make it financially viable, as a result of there have been applied sciences and batteries previously globally, which have the answer, however they’re so costly that they’re not broadly adopted,” mentioned Tejas Kusurkar, co-founder and CEO of Offgrid Vitality Labs, in an interview.
Kusurkar, who has a Ph.D. from IIT Kanpur, co-founded Offgrid Vitality 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 advised TechCrunch.
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The startup spent its first six years creating battery know-how and has to date secured greater than 25 IP households and over 50 IP belongings 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 fireside.
ZincGel can also be able to dealing with longer discharges (6–12 hours) a number of occasions 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.
Offgrid Vitality Labs Co-founders Rishi Ok Srivastava, Brindan Tulachan, Ankur Agarwal, and Tejas Kusurkar (Left to Proper)
Zinc in batteries is just not a brand new idea, and a few corporations have already supplied zinc-bromide-based batteries, together with the Nasdaq-listed EOS Vitality Enterprises. Nonetheless, Kusurkar famous that Offgrid Vitality Labs makes use of its patented belongings that assist convey down the associated fee. The ZincGel batteries may also cut back the necessity for utilizing graphite, which helps convey down their manufacturing price.
“In the end, clients care about the identical efficiency, higher worth, or higher efficiency, similar worth,” Srivastava advised TechCrunch.
Offgrid Vitality Labs’ know-how can also be designed to permit for tweaking or sub-optimizing the battery based mostly on the applying. 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 focusing on industries with net-zero objectives that wish to maximize renewable vitality use by integrating battery storage. Its batteries are additionally being explored for purposes reminiscent of 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 date, Offgrid Vitality 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 display its know-how to early clients subsequent 12 months.
The UK facility may 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 gives a robust ecosystem and is already a hub for battery manufacturing. The startup already has co-founders Kusurkar and Tulachan based mostly within the U.Ok. to assist with native operations. Nonetheless, the startup sees India as certainly one of its key markets as soon as the batteries are prepared for commercialization in 2026.
The Collection A spherical was led by Archean Chemical substances, 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.
