Lithium has become the default choice for battery-powered systems, but its limitations \u2014 from volatile supply chains to short lifespans \u2014 are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Offgrid Energy Labs<\/a>, a deep-tech startup based in India, wants to make lithium less central, especially when it comes to battery storage.<\/p>\n The seven-year-old startup, incubated at IIT Kanpur, has developed a proprietary zinc-bromine-based battery system as an alternative to lithium-ion technology. Called ZincGel, it delivers 80\u201390% of the energy efficiency of conventional lithium batteries, but at a significantly lower levelized cost of storage, the startup said.<\/p>\n As power demand grows worldwide, countries are ramping up efforts to expand renewable energy storage. India, as a prominent nation in this regard, aims to increase its non-fossil energy capacity tenfold \u2014 from 50 gigawatts to 500 gigawatts<\/a> \u2014 by 2030. New Delhi is also targeting 236 gigawatt-hours<\/a> of battery energy storage capacity by 2031\u201332 and announced a \u20b954 billion (roughly $612 million) funding planin June to develop 30 gigawatt-hour battery storage systems in the country. However, like many global markets, India faces a key challenge: China\u2019s dominance over the lithium supply chain.<\/p>\n Offgrid Energy Labs is betting that its ZincGel battery technology can ease supply constraints by using widely available materials and offering a more cost-effective alternative to lithium-based systems.<\/p>\n Now, the startup has raised $15 million in Series A funding to scale up its operations. It plans to build a 10-megawatt-hour demonstration facility in the UK, expected to be ready by the first quarter of 2026, and begin commercializing ZincGel in the quarters that follow \u2014 with a gigafactory in India planned as the next phase.<\/p>\n \u201cNot 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\u2019re so expensive that they\u2019re not widely adopted,\u201d said Tejas Kusurkar, co-founder and CEO of Offgrid Energy Labs, in an interview.<\/p>\n Kusurkar, who has a Ph.D. from IIT Kanpur, co-founded Offgrid Energy Labs in 2018 at the institute\u2019s Startup Incubation and Innovation Center, along with Brindan Tulachan (also a Ph.D. from IIT Kanpur), Rishi Srivastava, and Ankur Agarwal. The team observed that while lithium batteries are well-suited for mobility, the stationary storage market was underserved \u2014 and needed batteries that are safer, more resilient, and built on a supply chain that is easier to access, Kusurkar told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco<\/span> The startup spent its first six years developing battery technology and has so far secured more than 25 IP families and over 50 IP assets across markets, including the U.S., U.K., India, as well as China, Australia, and Japan. The battery is based on zinc-bromide chemistry with a proprietary water-based electrolyte, resulting in a low risk of fire.<\/p>\n ZincGel is also capable of handling longer discharges (6\u201312 hours) multiple times throughout its lifetime and can last twice as long as a typical lithium-ion battery, Kusurkar said. Furthermore, the battery utilizes a carbon-based cathode for both fast charging and discharging.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/offgrid-energy-labs-co-founders.jpg\" "\\"\\"")