India’s Offgrid Energy Labs Raises $15M for ZincGel Battery Pilot in UK

Offgrid Energy Labs, an Indian deep-tech startup founded in 2018 and incubated at IIT Kanpur, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Archean Chemical Industries, with participation from existing investor Ankur Capital. The company is developing ZincGel, a zinc-bromine gel battery technology designed as a safer, greener, and more cost-effective alternative to lithium-ion batteries for stationary energy storage, particularly for 6–12-hour long-duration storage applications where lithium struggles. Offgrid plans to use the funds to build a 10 MWh demonstration manufacturing facility in the UK by early 2026 and subsequently commercialize the technology, with plans for a gigafactory in India. ZincGel technology offers 80–90% of lithium's energy efficiency but at a significantly lower levelized cost of storage, while also reducing reliance on lithium amid supply chain challenges dominated by China. India’s ambitious renewable energy goals, targeting 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030 and 236 GWh of battery storage by 2031–32, provide a strong market opportunity for this technology. The startup aims to serve industrial net-zero projects, peak demand management, and off-grid areas, leveraging zinc's abundance and safer chemistry to address both performance and safety concerns associated with lithium batteries.