PeakAmp bets on circular energy for India’s EV future
Gurugram startup PeakAmp is building a circular ecosystem for end-of-life batteries, turning waste into value through reuse, recycling, and recovery.
The appeal of an electric vehicle often comes from the range it promises. But over time, that range inevitably shrinks. A car that once cruised for 300 km may suddenly struggle to cover 150.
The battery still works, but it no longer meets the owner’s needs. And that raises a tough question: What happens to the costly battery pack that makes up nearly 40% of the vehicle’s price?
This question is what sparked the idea of PeakAmp. The Gurugram-based cleantech startup, founded in 2024, is tackling one of the biggest challenges in India’s fast-growing EV ecosystem: finding sustainable solutions for end-of-life batteries and unlocking new value from them.
“Metals never lose their property,” says Vijay Gond, Co-founder and CEO of PeakAmp. “A battery may stop meeting the needs of an EV, but its cells still contain energy. Our approach is simple: extract, grade, and reuse everything we can before recycling.”
Gond, with a BTech in electronics and communication and an MBA from IIM Raipur, tried several ventures before founding PeakAmp. In 2017, he launched Car Corner in Lucknow, a luxury car maintenance platform that struggled in the Tier II markets and was shut down.
While studying for his MBA, he launched Gir Amrit in Varanasi to deliver A2 milk, but he shut the company down in 2022 after the cattle were afflicted by lumpy skin disease. He then joined Matrix, a lithium-ion battery recycling company, where the idea for PeakAmp was born.
“I wanted to build something scalable. I saw no one connecting the dots in battery recycling, and that’s where PeakAmp comes in,” Gond says.
He co-founded PeakAmp in 2024 with Aditya Sudhanshu (COO), Aditya Prakash (Business), and Akhil Yerawar (Strategy). The startup, which operates with a 10-member team, has a recycling facility in Gujarat through a joint venture.
“The name PeakAmp comes from battery chemistry, specifically P-CAM, or precursor cathode active material,” Gond says.
How PeakAmp works
PeakAmp is tackling two urgent challenges: under the government’s extended producer responsibility (EPR) rules, EV OEMs are required to collect and recycle every battery they sell; at the same time, EV owners are often unsure of what to do when battery performance declines. The startup aims to address both these issues with a circular battery ecosystem.
The startup is currently working with more than ten OEMs, with 20 more in the pipeline, to collect end-of-life battery packs. These are tested, dismantled, and sorted. Usable cells are graded from A+ to C and repurposed for ‘second life’ applications. A+ cells can power home inverters, while lower-grade cells may go into agricultural solar pumps or other energy storage systems. Dead cells are recycled to extract high-purity metals like copper, aluminium, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese.
“We have achieved a purity level of more than 99.99% at the lab stage,” says Gond.
The recovered metals are sold to over 15 B2B clients, including EV manufacturers and recyclers, or released in the open market, depending on demand.
PeakAmp earns revenue at every step: margins on second-life cells, sales of recovered metals, and service fees from OEMs. Pricing varies by cell type and market rates. For instance, NMC (Nickel Manganese Cobalt) second-life cells sell for Rs 40–60 each, while end-of-life battery packs are bought for around Rs 100–150 per kg.
Growth and funding
In just over a year, PeakAmp has reached a valuation of Rs 51 crore; it has generated revenues of Rs 12 crore to date. The company recently raised Rs 12 crore in funding, led by Carat Capital’s Karan Mittal, a prominent investor in EV startups.
The startup plans to use the fresh funding to grow operations, build a safe hub-and-spoke logistics network for moving used batteries, and finish setting up a chemical recycling plant.
“Our mechanical factory in Gujarat is already running, and the chemical plant should be ready by January,” says Gond.
The company also plans to open another chemical plant in Maharashtra by the end of next year.
“In the next six months, PeakAmp aims to reach an annual business scale of Rs 24 crore.”
Competition, challenges, and the future
PeakAmp competes with Indian companies such as Lohum, Metastable Materials, and BatX. “I look up to them for how they anticipated problems early. Our vision is different; we want to build an ecosystem, not just a recycler,” says Gond.
PeakAmp’s integrated model of grading, reuse, and recycling helps it stand out in a growing market.
The biggest challenges are pricing and logistics. “Right now, no one knows the fair price of an old battery pack; it’s like the used car market before Spinny,” says Gond.
Safe transport of hazardous batteries is another challenge.
The company is tackling these issues by setting transparent prices through cell grading and data analysis, and by building a hub-and-spoke logistics network for safe battery collection and transport.
For now, PeakAmp works with OEMs and B2B clients, but it plans to enter consumer services soon. The startup plans to launch a B2C app that will let EV owners compare, finance, and replace battery packs, or even choose second-life options, without being tied to one maker.
“If people buy a Rs 20 lakh EV, nearly Rs 6 lakh is the battery. When it’s time to replace it, people will weigh options, warranty, financing, and alternatives. Our goal is to be the platform where every customer finds the right solution,” says Gond.
The Indian EV market is growing rapidly, but recycling remains a nascent space. According to an IMARC report, India’s battery recycling market (including all battery types) was estimated to be around $554.4 million in 2024, and is expected to grow to $1.3 billion by 2033.
“We’re aiming to capture around 10% of the market size in the next six years,” says Gond.
Edited by Swetha Kannan