Clean Electric raised $2.2 million in a seed round led by a Bengaluru-based early-stage venture capital firm Kalaari Capital, to produce 5,000 electric vehicles (EV) battery packs monthly from a proposed manufacturing facility in Pune.

The other participants in the round involved Climate Angels, LV Fund, 7Square Ventures, and CIIE Regional Innovation Foundation.

Clean Electric said it would direct the funds raised to study safety and performance issues like EV fires,  long charging times, and frequent battery replacement.

A part of the funds will be used to develop improved products related to fast charging, renewable energy storage, battery swapping technology, and research and development.

Clean Electric said its new production line of battery packs is aligned with the guidelines of the AIS-156 Phase-II EV battery testing standard, which the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said would be implemented from March 2023. The new products will likely be ready for certification tests before the year-end.

In September, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways issued amendments providing for additional safety requirements related to battery cells, battery management systems, onboard chargers, battery pack design, and thermal propagation due to internal cell short circuits leading to fires.

Founded in 2020, Clean Electric manufactures liquid-cooled battery solutions for two and three-wheelers. It manufactures, designs, develops, markets, supplies, and provides after-sales of advanced energy storage solutions for mobility and stationary storage applications and related energy infrastructure and services.

Co-Founder and CTO at Clean Electric Abhinav Roy said, “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.”

“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,” said Ravinder Singh, Partner at Kalaari Capital.