The seed of MEINE Electric’s vision was sown during Priyansh Mohan’s college days at CEG Anna University. What began as college research projects on hydrogen fuel cells and vanadium redox flow batteries soon evolved into a deeper passion for building and experimenting with new battery systems. This hands-on experience revealed the limitations of lithium-ion batteries for storage durations beyond six hours, igniting Priyansh’s drive to explore alternative battery technologies that could store clean energy affordably, safely, and reliably at scale.

Joining forces with Stuti Kakkar, his longtime friend since school, Priyansh began building MEINE Electric with a shared ambition to solve one of the most important infrastructure challenges of the energy transition. Stuti, an economics graduate from LSR, Delhi University, brought her experience as a consultant in the energy transition space at BCG, helping shape the company’s business direction. Together, they began navigating the realities of building as young founders — from bootstrapping and customer discovery to identifying the right product-market fit for a stationary, long-duration energy storage solution built around cost, capacity, and supply-chain resilience.

As they continued dissecting the problem, a clear insight emerged: the real bottleneck was not only in how we use clean energy, but in how we make it available when it is needed most. Solar and wind are becoming cheaper and more abundant, but without affordable long-duration storage, clean power remains intermittent. Grids face curtailment, congestion, variability, and reliability challenges — especially in fast-growing renewable markets like India and APAC.

This realisation became the catalyst for MEINE Electric’s focus on iron-air batteries: a long-duration energy storage technology built to make renewable power available beyond the short-duration window served by conventional lithium-ion systems.

Accelerating Innovation With Antler

MEINE Electric’s journey accelerated when Priyansh and Stuti joined Antler’s Residency program. The program gave the founders the space to evaluate their assumptions, pressure-test their market thinking, and sharpen the company’s long-term direction.

“The Antler program provided us with a space to thoroughly evaluate our ideas and challenge our assumptions,” recalls Priyansh. “Conversations with Nandini, Nitin, Rajiv, Sushmit, and Sankalp pushed us to rethink our approach and broaden our market perspective.”

Through these conversations, customer discovery, and technical validation, MEINE Electric evolved from an early metal-air exploration company into a grid-first, iron-air long-duration energy storage startup. The company began focusing on where its technology could create the highest systemic value: renewable energy firming, grid-scale storage, industrial reliability, microgrids, load shifting, and decentralised clean power.

“Antler didn’t impose their decision on us,” Stuti reflects, “but led us to take the right decision considering all parameters.”

Investing in the Future of Long-Duration Energy Storage

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Our conviction to invest in Meine Electric stems from their belief in the founders' exceptional capabilities and the immense potential of their technology to disrupt the energy landscape. Our thesis is built on the following pillars:

The world is rapidly adding renewable generation capacity, but short-duration batteries alone cannot solve the full problem of clean power reliability. Lithium-ion batteries are highly effective for fast-response and shorter-duration applications, but grids with high renewable penetration also need storage that can discharge for longer periods at significantly lower cost.

MEINE Electric is building iron-air batteries to serve this gap. Its systems are designed to complement lithium-ion, not replace it across every application. Li-ion can continue to serve short-duration and high-power use cases, while iron-air can support longer-duration needs (16-100 hours) such as renewable firming, grid congestion relief, industrial backup, and round-the-clock clean power.

Iron-air is compelling because it uses abundant materials such as iron, water, and air, while avoiding the fire risk and rare-earth metal dependencies associated with many conventional battery chemistries. MEINE Electric is engineering this chemistry for long-duration grid storage, with a roadmap centred on daily-cycle storage, a target LCOS of ~$0.05/kWh, and modular 40kW/720kWh battery skids designed for utility-scale and industrial deployments. Its iron-air platform is being built to make renewable power dispatchable beyond the lithium-ion’s window.

The team’s exceptional first-principles thinking, agility in translating complex research into tangible experiments, and rapid iteration capabilities stood out to us. MEINE has progressed from lab-scale work toward rechargeable iron-air modules and modular battery systems, with a clear commercial path into pilots and deployments.

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The team's exceptional first principles of thinking, agility in translating complex research into tangible experiments, and rapid iteration capabilities. Within 10 months, with a small team and a budget of just $25,000, they developed six generations of their batteries, achieving a stable iron-air cell capable of charging within 24 hours – surpassing the performance metrics of traditional iron-air batteries.

As Nitin, Partner at Antler in India, states, “Priyansh and Stuti embody the kind of founders we seek — an unwavering passion for solving critical challenges combined with exceptional execution capabilities. Their ability to pivot and adapt their vision while maintaining a laser focus on sustainability is truly commendable. We’re confident that MEINE Electric’s innovative approach to long-duration energy storage will help pave the way for a cleaner, more resilient energy future.”

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Powering a Sustainable Tomorrow

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Meine Electric's plans are ambitious yet deeply rooted in their commitment to sustainable energy solutions. In the next six months, the focus will be on setting up a state-of-the-art lab space, de-risking the technology through rigorous testing and iteration, and conducting a pilot implementation.

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Within the next year, they plan to expand their team of skilled engineers and researchers and increase the scope of their technology's applications. The longer-term vision is to commercialise their solution in at least one market within the next five years, leveraging strategic partnerships and collaborations to accelerate adoption.

Over the longer term, MEINE Electric aims to help create a decentralised, renewable-first energy system. By making long-duration storage safer, more affordable, and more scalable, the company wants to reduce dependence on fossil-fuel backup and enable clean power to be available whenever and wherever it is needed.

As the world grapples with the urgent need for sustainable energy solutions, Meine Electric stands at the forefront of innovation, driven by a passion to create a cleaner, more sustainable future. With Antler's backing and unwavering determination, this young startup is poised to make a lasting impact on how we power our world, one sustainable solution at a time.

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Meine Electric is currently looking for talented engineers & researchers from the fields of electrochemistry, product design, and power electronics to join their team & embark on a journey to revolutionize the energy industry. If interested, please reach out at contact@meineelectric.com.

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‍Globally, over 8,000 founders believe the Residency to be the best platform to launch a startup, whether it be stress-testing venture scalability, validating an idea faster, or completing the founding team. We are looking for solo founders and early teams committed to building game-changing venture scalable startups.

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Join Antler to validate your idea, build your team, and access capital to launch and scale your company. Applications are open for early teams throughout the year and for the cohort starting February 2025 for solo founders.

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