India’s Offgrid Raises $15m To Make Lithium Optional For Battery Storage

Lithium has go nan default prime for battery-powered systems, but its limitations — from volatile proviso chains to short lifespans — are becoming progressively difficult to ignore. Offgrid Energy Labs, a deep-tech startup based successful India, wants to make lithium little central, particularly erstwhile it comes to artillery storage.

The seven-year-old startup, incubated astatine IIT Kanpur, has developed a proprietary zinc-bromine-based artillery strategy arsenic an replacement to lithium-ion technology. Called ZincGel, it delivers 80–90% of nan power ratio of accepted lithium batteries, but astatine a importantly little levelized costs of storage, nan startup said.

As powerfulness request grows worldwide, countries are ramping up efforts to grow renewable power storage. India, arsenic a salient federation successful this regard, intends to summation its non-fossil power capacity tenfold — from 50 gigawatts to 500 gigawatts — by 2030. New Delhi is besides targeting 236 gigawatt-hours of artillery power retention capacity by 2031–32 and announced a ₹54 cardinal (roughly $612 million) backing planin June to create 30 gigawatt-hour artillery retention systems successful nan country. However, for illustration galore world markets, India faces a cardinal challenge: China’s power complete nan lithium proviso chain.

Offgrid Energy Labs is betting that its ZincGel artillery exertion tin easiness proviso constraints by utilizing wide disposable materials and offering a much cost-effective replacement to lithium-based systems.

Now, nan startup has raised $15 cardinal successful Series A backing to standard up its operations. It plans to build a 10-megawatt-hour objection installation successful nan UK, expected to beryllium fresh by nan first 4th of 2026, and statesman commercializing ZincGel successful nan quarters that travel — pinch a gigafactory successful India planned arsenic nan adjacent phase.

“Not only should we beryllium addressing a spread successful nan marketplace from an exertion standpoint, but we should besides make it financially viable, because location person been technologies and batteries successful nan past globally, which person nan solution, but they’re truthful costly that they’re not wide adopted,” said Tejas Kusurkar, co-founder and CEO of Offgrid Energy Labs, successful an interview.

Kusurkar, who has a Ph.D. from IIT Kanpur, co-founded Offgrid Energy Labs successful 2018 astatine nan institute’s Startup Incubation and Innovation Center, on pinch Brindan Tulachan (also a Ph.D. from IIT Kanpur), Rishi Srivastava, and Ankur Agarwal. The squad observed that while lithium batteries are well-suited for mobility, nan stationary retention marketplace was underserved — and needed batteries that are safer, much resilient, and built connected a proviso concatenation that is easier to access, Kusurkar told TechCrunch.

The startup spent its first six years processing artillery exertion and has truthful acold secured much than 25 IP families and complete 50 IP assets crossed markets, including nan U.S., U.K., India, arsenic good arsenic China, Australia, and Japan. The artillery is based connected zinc-bromide chemistry pinch a proprietary water-based electrolyte, resulting successful a debased consequence of fire.

ZincGel is besides tin of handling longer discharges (6–12 hours) aggregate times passim its life and tin past doubly arsenic agelong arsenic a emblematic lithium-ion battery, Kusurkar said. Furthermore, nan artillery utilizes a carbon-based cathode for some accelerated charging and discharging.

Offgrid Energy Labs Co-founders Rishi K Srivastava, Brindan Tulachan, Ankur Agarwal, and Tejas Kusurkar (Left to Right)

Zinc successful batteries is not a caller concept, and immoderate companies person already offered zinc-bromide-based batteries, including nan Nasdaq-listed EOS Energy Enterprises. However, Kusurkar noted that Offgrid Energy Labs uses its patented assets that thief bring down nan cost. The ZincGel batteries tin besides trim nan request for utilizing graphite, which helps bring down their accumulation cost.

“Ultimately, customers attraction astir nan aforesaid performance, amended price, aliases amended performance, aforesaid price,” Srivastava told TechCrunch.

Offgrid Energy Labs’ exertion is besides designed to let for tweaking aliases sub-optimizing nan artillery based connected nan application. This intends that these zinc batteries tin run independently of biology conditions and supply power retention moreover astatine temperatures arsenic debased arsenic minus 10 degrees Celsius, Srivastava said.

The startup is targeting industries pinch net-zero goals that want to maximize renewable power usage by integrating artillery storage. Its batteries are besides being explored for applications specified arsenic highest shifting and decentralized, off-grid power solutions. Shell — which invested successful Offgrid during its seed information done its firm task limb — and Tata Power are among nan early testers. The commencement is besides successful talks pinch world players, including Europe’s Enel Group, to create batteries tailored to their circumstantial usage cases.

So far, Offgrid Energy Labs has built its artillery tech manually astatine a tinkering laboratory successful Uttar Pradesh’s Noida. However, nan startup plans to leverage its installation successful nan U.K. to show its exertion to early customers adjacent year.

The UK installation will person a c footprint 50% little than that of a emblematic lithium artillery gigafactory, Srivastava said, adding that nan startup has opted for simpler manufacturing processes to trim some superior and operational expenses.

Asked why nan U.K. — and not India — was chosen for its first facility, Srivastava said, arsenic Europe offers a beardown ecosystem and is already a hub for artillery manufacturing. The startup already has co-founders Kusurkar and Tulachan based successful nan U.K. to thief pinch section operations. Still, nan startup sees India arsenic 1 of its cardinal markets erstwhile nan batteries are fresh for commercialization successful 2026.

The Series A information was led by Archean Chemicals, a Chennai-based specialty chemicals manufacturer, which now holds a 21% liking successful nan startup, on pinch information from Ankur Capital.

Srivastava told TechCrunch that Archean’s information is simply a strategical alignment, arsenic nan publically listed institution has sizeable expertise successful bromine manufacturing and proviso concatenation management.

The startup is weighted astatine astir $58 cardinal post-money.