Clean Electric, a startup that provides energy storage solutions, has received $2.2 million in a seed round led by Climate Angels and Bengaluru-based venture capital firm Kalaari Capital. The round also witnessed the participation of LV Fund, 7Square Ventures and CIIE Regional Innovation Foundation.
Clean Electric plans to deploy the funds to set up a manufacturing facility in Pune to produce 5,000 battery packs per month, expanding its R&D, sales, & operations teams. The firm will also develop new products around faster charging, renewable energy storage and battery swapping, it said in a press release.
Founded in 2016 by Akash Gupta and Abhinav Roy, Clean Electric manufactures, designs, develops, markets, supplies and provides after-sales of advanced energy storage solutions for mobility and stationary storage applications as well as related energy infrastructure & services. The company has built liquid-cooled battery solutions for 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers, and battery-swapping applications.
The company’s products have been in pilot testing with multiple vehicle OEMs across the country, having undergone more than 30,000 Km of on-road testing. Compliant with AIS-156 Phase 2 guidelines (to be implemented from March 2023), the products are expected to be ready for certification tests before year-end.
Clean Electric also plans to use the funds towards expanding its R&D, sales, & operations teams, as well as for developing new products around faster charging, renewable energy storage, and battery swapping.
Performance of Clean Electric.
Overall, EV penetration is less than 2%. In order to transition to an all-electric future, India needs robust electric vehicles and charging infrastructure. Current EVs take 3-4 hours to charge making it inconvenient for users, while unpredictable battery life makes it difficult for the NBFCs & Banks to finance these vehicles. On top of this, multiple reputed EV OEMs vehicles’ catching fire & resulting casualties have eroded the confidence of customers and created safety concerns in their mind.
“Clean Electric is delivering on the much-needed innovation in battery technology suitable for India. The patents the team has filed introduce direct liquid cooling technology wherein the cells of the battery are 100% in contact with a coolant which ensures maximum safety (fireproof), 25-minute charging and a 1.5x longer life span. Their solutions can also be exported to several countries in the global south that are dealing with similar issues around EV safety and performance,” said Sumeet Singh, Partner at Climate Angels.
Growth of Clean Electric
“India’s EV solutions will become global postulates. Next decade is going to witness the surge of EVs, expected to grow from the current ~1.4M to ~50M by 2030. India’s expectations of efficiency, performance, and safety of batteries under diverse and extreme constraints ranging from terrain to climate will seed global innovation. Clean Electric’s direct liquid cooled battery packs will become the benchmark, offering the highest safety while maximizing its life and efficiency. IITians Akash and Abhinav have invented zero kelvin packs which have the potential to meet growing needs of today and future,” said Ravinder Singh, Partner at Kalaari Capital.
“Our aim is to enable Mankind’s shift from Fossil Fuels, and batteries have been the hardest part of this transformation. By providing dependable, safe, and performant Energy Storage Solutions, we believe we can add immense value to the EV and RE ecosystems,” said Abhinav Roy, Co-Founder, and CTO at Clean Electric.
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