Gurgaon-based deep-tech startup Chakr Innovation is developing new manufacturing capabilities and investing in emerging technologies, such as aluminium-air batteries, as part of a strategy to capitalise on the growing demand for clean-tech solutions.
With a fresh infusion of $23 million from Iron Pillar, a growth-stage focused venture fund, Chakr is aiming to offer air pollution reduction solutions in cities worldwide.
The startup’s innovative technology, coupled with the importance of the problem it is looking to tackle, helped it win the ET Startup Award 2025 in the ‘Social Enterprise’ category.
Although Chakr has installed more than 500 of its clean-tech devices across 1,300 locations, mostly for large enterprises such as the Tata Group and DLF, founder Kushagra Srivastava sees the market penetration as very low.
“The market for clean energy has just opened up. Our immediate focus is to expand within the existing user base. For example, Tata Group has started using our technology, but penetration remains low,” he said.
Modest beginning
For Srivastava, the fight against air pollution is also personal. In 2015, while he was a second-year student at IIT Delhi, a World Health Organisation (WHO) study named New Delhi as the world’s most polluted city.
“My family, my friends, everyone is in Delhi. And given that I was being trained on building technologies… it seems like the perfect mix of mixing technology for creating a societal impact,” said Srivastava.
Today, this is a national mission, and a high-interest area for founders and investors.
Chakr has developed a proprietary catalyst technology that can be retrofitted into diesel generators to reduce harmful emissions.
What’s next
The company is in the early stages of commercialising an energy storage technology based on aluminium-air chemistry, an alternative to lithium-ion batteries. This shift, Srivastava explained, made sense due to India’s resource landscape, as the country has the world’s fourth-largest aluminium reserves.
“We have no lithium, no nickel, no cobalt. In fact, 96% of that raw material is controlled by China,” he said.
Srivastava said the company was even “asked by Niti Aayog to look at indigenous chemistries to provide an alternative for lithium”, which prompted them to begin work on the technology five years ago. Initial commercial deployments are underway, and the company is now scaling it up.
Hurdles aplenty
Chakr’s journey was fraught with challenges unique to a hardware-based, clean-tech venture in India. Beyond the concern over funding, the startup had to contend with a limited domestic manufacturing ecosystem.
“The hardware ecosystem in India was very limited… We are great at building software, but our ability to build prototypes, commercialise and manufacture hardware is very limited,” Srivastava said.
Additionally, the company’s success was intrinsically tied to the regulatory landscape. A turning point came in 2019 with the launch of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), which provided the policy push that Chakr needed. The programme identified 131 cities and put measures in place to improve air quality. This led to the use of emission control technology for diesel generators becoming mandatory in 12 states.