Why we doubled down on OffGrid

In a landmark milestone for the Indian deep science tech ecosystem, our portfolio company OffGrid Energy Labs raised a $15M Series A. At Ankur Capital, we co-led their seed round in 2021, and are doubling down in this round too. Offgrid will use the capital to grow into the rapidly growing $100B stationary energy storage market. OffGrid’s proprietary ZincGel chemistry is the foundation for their zinc-bromide batteries that will power energy storage solutions around the world. 

OffGrid’s batteries offer 7000+ cycles of life (translating to 20 years), which is better than that of the best LFP batteries today. They are cheaper to build and use abundant materials such as zinc and bromine, thereby also addressing lithium’s supply chain vulnerabilities. The batteries can operate in a temperature band ranging from -10 degC to 50 degC without specialized HVAC systems - which truly sets them apart compared to all other electrochemical energy storage solutions. In other words, ZincGel batteries are safer, cheaper to build, cheaper to operate and longer-lasting as compared to lithium-ion batteries.

New battery chemistries including Zinc and Sodium have long been a promising areas for stationary storage; however, both academic and commercial efforts thus far have suffered from low life & high maintenance, as well as limited depth-of-discharge. OffGrid has overcome these limitations with their two key pillars of innovation:

1. Electrolyte: A gel-based, rather than liquid, electrolyte, which prevents the formation of zinc dendrites, is non-flammable, and reduces the dry-out rate which extends battery life, and
2. Advanced electrode: OffGrid uses a proprietary carbon-based cathode, which unlocks high performance due to high effective surface area, and a specially designed anode that is designed to work with their gel electrolyte. 

OffGrid’s technology is protected by over 50 patents, across chemistry, materials, design and manufacturing. Since we first invested in 2021, OffGrid has further derisked the technology by running real-world pilots with credible energy partners in India: a 50kWh pilot that has been operational for 2+ years in partnership with Shell as well as a microgrid pilot with Tata Power.

OffGrid has also developed a v2 of their battery while incorporating real-world operational data. New cell design has increased the energy density by 40% over the original v1 pilot installation. While exploring adjacent markets, such as low-powered urban mobility that provides key last-mile connectivity in the NCR region, OffGrid also developed a “bipolar” battery - this battery uses the same underlying chemistry, but optimizes the design differently to maximize energy density and minimize cost for a shorter number of cycles (2000 as opposed to their maximum of 7000). This bipolar battery offers a better total cost of ownership (TCO) for urban mobility applications.

As OffGrid’s batteries have delivered results in real world applications across C&I, microgrid and mobility applications, the next logical step is automated manufacturing at scale. We’ve watched proudly as the team has built the CAD muscle to design tooling from scratch, secured its supply chains by entering into partnerships with Indian and global materials suppliers, and has increased the precision of its electrode process to bring round-trip efficiency to over 90%.

OffGrid is establishing a 10 MWh demonstration manufacturing facility in the UK, slated for completion by the first quarter of 2026. Europe is already a hub for battery manufacturing. This plant will showcase ZincGel's capabilities to early customers, with simplified processes contributing to lower manufacturing cost and a 50% lower carbon footprint than traditional lithium gigafactories.