IBC planning to invest $15M For India Battery Boom
IBC Hits Reverse on Funding, Seeks $15M for India Plant
Battery startup IBC hits the brakes on its fundraising drive. It has secured $35 million in January at a valuation of $130 million. The company was gunning initially for a massive $85 million to fuel its India battery plant. The startup now is forced to recalibrate its plans.
New investors are adopting a wait-and-see attitude, wanting the company first to prove that the India plant can actually operate successfully before opening their wallets too far. IBC has reduced the funding target to a mere $15 million, refinancing only what is immediately necessary.
IBC’s Battery Blueprint: From Korea to India
IBC is getting ready to take the groundwork and production of batteries, from the drawing board into the assembly line, ground up in India. Successful testing with South Korean-developed cells performed on Indian automakers sets the company up to replicate its manufacturing domestically.
But the path to an indigenous battery industry is riddled with the nightmarish prospect of infrastructure, logistics, and raw material supply hurdles. These are some of the challenges which IBC will have to deal with to get a decent piece of India’s growing pie in the electric vehicle space.
India’s EV Push Fuels IBC’s Battery Ambitions
It has set off a battery-making boom across India with a stringent 2030 target to electrify a meaningful portion of its vehicle fleet. Helped by agreeable policies such as waiver of customs duty and state incentives, the country is fast emerging as a worthwhile destination for battery players.
With this, IBC would join the wave and the advanced NMC 622/ Graphite lithium-ion cells would strike a balance between energy density and safety. This technology of the company distinguishes itself amidst the competitive landscape inhabited by giants such as Ola Electric, Mahindra & Mahindra, Toyota, and Honda—which also stakes its bet on NMC chemistry.
While competitors like LG push the envelope with higher energy density NMC-811 cells, IBC’s focus on durability could give it a unique edge in the Indian market.
