IIT Roorkee startup Indi Energy, which specializes in manufacturing indigenous sodium-ion batteries, has been accorded the National Startup Award 2022 in the Energy Storage category by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s initiative Startup India.

The award honors businesses that offer innovative and ground-breaking solutions that encourage India’s sustainable economic development and provide employment opportunities.

Indi Energy, founded in 2019, is India’s first company to successfully develop an indigenous sodium-ion cell using bio-waste-derived commercial hard carbon and indigenously developed cathode.

The company’s sodium-ion batteries are said to have a high energy density, low cost, and high safety, making them a viable and sustainable alternative to traditional lithium-ion batteries and lead-acid batteries.

The company aims to provide affordable and reliable energy storage solutions for a wide range of applications, including electric vehicles, grid storage, and portable electronics.

The company said it is trying to empower the nation with its indigenously developed battery, including its components, to make India self-reliant.

“We are proud to be leading the way in the development of sodium-ion batteries in India. This award is a step towards our goal of making India’s energy independent and self-reliant in sustainable energy storage solutions,” Yogesh Kumar Sharma, Co-Founder at Indi Energy, said.

“This award is a true recognition of our team’s hard work, dedication, and passion for creating sustainable and innovative energy solutions for India and the world,” Akash Soni, Co-Founder, and CEO of Indi Energy, said.

In recognition of the achievement, the certificate of commendation was presented by Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industries.

The institute recently launched a program to support faculty-led startups aimed at the commercialization of technologies.

The support is provided for prototyping, pilot testing, and marketing expenses.

IIT Roorkee is supporting 130-plus startups through TIDES (Technology Incubation and Entrepreneurship Development Society) and I-Hub Divyasampark.

Both units facilitate the incubation of new enterprises with innovative technologies by admitting them to their Incubation Centre and providing physical, technical, financial, and networking support and services.

In December 2022, researchers from the institute said they had successfully developed a prototype of a low-cost, high-quality perovskite solar cell that achieved a stable power conversion efficiency of 17.05%.

In the same month, researchers from IIT Guwahati, in collaboration with the University of Lisbon, Portugal, found a bacterial endoglucanase enzyme capable of breaking down biomatter into simple sugar and bioethanol — a promising renewable fuel that can replace petroleum-based fuel systems.