Lithium has become the default choice for battery-powered systems, but limits from the volatile supply chain to short lifespans are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Offgrid Energy Labs, a deep technology startup based in India, wants to reduce lithium to the center, especially when it comes to battery storage.
The seven-year-old startup incubated at IIT Kanpur has developed its own zinc bromine-based battery system as an alternative to lithium-ion technology. Called Zincgel, it offers 80-90% of the energy efficiency of traditional lithium batteries, but its storage costs are significantly lower, says the startup.
As electricity demand increases worldwide, countries are stepping up their efforts to expand renewable energy storage. As a prominent country in this regard, India aims to 10 times its non-fossil energy capacity from 50 to 500 to 50 to 50 to 50 to 50 to 50 to 50 to 50 to 50 gigawatts by 2030. New Delhi has announced £5.4 million ($612 million battery-based), targeting a battery energy storage capacity of 236 gigawatts by 2031-32. But like many global markets, India faces important challenges. China’s control over the lithium supply chain.
Offgrid Energy Labs bets that Zincgel battery technology can ease supply constraints by using widely available materials and offering a more cost-effective alternative to lithium-based systems.
The startup is currently raising $15 million with Series A funding to expand its operations. It plans to build a 10 megawatt-hour demonstration facility in the UK, which is expected to be ready by the first quarter of 2026, and launch Zincgel’s commercial in its planned lodgings by the next phase by Gigafactory in India.
“We need to address market gaps from an application perspective, but we also need to make it financially viable because we had technology and batteries in the past that we had solutions.
From IIT Kanpur, a PhD student, he co-founded Offgrid Energy Labs in 2018 at the Institute’s Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre, along with Brindan Tulachan (PhD of IIT Kanpur), Rishi Srivastava and Ankur Agarwal. The team observed that lithium batteries are suitable for mobility, but the fixed storage market is not serviced. The batteries needed were built on a safer, more resilient and accessible supply chain, Kusurkar told TechCrunch.
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The startup has spent the first six years developing battery technology, securing more than 25 IP families to date and more than 50 IP assets across the market, including the US, UK, India, China, Australia and Japan. The battery is based on zinc bromide chemistry with its own water-based electrolyte, which reduces the risk of fire.
Zincgel can also handle longer discharges (6-12 hours) multiple times throughout the lifetime, allowing it to continue twice as long as a typical lithium-ion battery, Kusurkar said. Additionally, the batteries utilize carbon-based cathodes for both fast charging and discharge.
Zinc in batteries is not a new concept, and some companies offer zinc bromide-based batteries, including EOS energy companies already registered with NASDAQ. However, Kusurkar noted that Offgrid Energy Labs can help reduce costs using patented assets. Zincgel batteries can also reduce the need for graphite use. This reduces production costs.
“In the end, customers care about the same performance, better prices, or better performance, the same price,” Srivastava told TechCrunch.
Offgrid Energy Labs’ technology is designed to allow you to fine-tune or sub-optimize your battery based on your application. This means that these zinc batteries can operate independently of environmental conditions and provide energy storage at temperatures as low as 10 degrees Celsius, Srivastava said.
Startups are targeting industries with a net-zero goal that wants to consolidate battery storage to maximize renewable energy use. The battery is also explored for applications such as peak shifting and distributed off-grid energy solutions. Shell – Off-grid invested in off-grid during seed rounds through the corporate venture arm, but Tata Power was one of the early testers. Start is also discussing with global players, including European Energy Groups, to develop batteries tailored to specific use cases.
So far, Offgrid Energy Labs has manually built battery technology in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida tinkering lab. However, the startup plans to leverage its UK facilities to demonstrate its technology to its customers early next year.
Srivastava added that the UK facility has 50% lower carbon footprint than the typical lithium battery GigaFactory, and that the startups have opted for a simpler manufacturing process to reduce both capital and operating costs.
He said he was asked why the UK and not India were chosen as the first facility, as Europe offers a strong ecosystem and is already a hub for battery manufacturing. The startup already has UK-based co-founders Kusurkar and Tulachan to support local businesses. Still, the startup sees India as one of its main markets if the battery is ready for commercialization in 2026.
The Series A round is led by Archean Chemicals, a specialized chemical manufacturer based in Chennai, and currently holds a 21% stake in the startup, along with participation from Ankur Capital.
Srivastava told TechCrunch that Archean’s participation was strategic integrity.
The startup is valued at approximately $58 million in money.
