Top News

The funding round was led by deeptech-focussed investment firm ZeroW, founded by Mekapati Family Office – the promoter of KMC Group

Entellus Industries plans to use the fresh capital to expand into sintered alloys and to take its existing products to market

The startup is focused on manufacturing rare earth metals and alloys to produce NdPr metal, bonded powders, and strip-cast alloys – critical inputs for permanent magnets

Manufacturing startup Entellus Industries has secured INR 50 Cr (about $5.5 Mn) in a funding round led by deeptech-focussed investment firm ZeroW, founded by Mekapati Family Office –  the promoter of KMC Group.

Founded in 2022 by Simha Kumar and Nagarajan Mahadeven, the startup is focused on manufacturing rare earth metals and alloys to produce NdPr metal (an alloy of Neodymium and Praseodymium), bonded powders, and strip-cast alloys, which are critical inputs for permanent magnets.

It plans to use the fresh capital to expand into sintered alloys. A part of the funding will be used to take its existing products to market. The startup plans to expand its production capacity to about 2,000 tons of magnets per year.

For context, sintered alloys are metal alloys produced via powder metallurgy, using the sintering process, where the metal powders are compacted under high pressure.

Permanent magnets are used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, defense, and advanced electronics.

Prior to this round, Entellus raised $12 Mn from Social Capital in 2022 to set up operations and build manufacturing plants in Tamil Nadu.

Notably, China’s curbs on exports of rare earth elements resulted in a shortage of permanent magnets last year, impacting industries like EV OEMs.

Following this, the Centre launched the ‘Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Sintered Rare Earth Permanent Magnets’ with an allocation of INR 7,280 Cr (about $815 Mn) in November last year to scale up production.

A number of Indian startups have also been working on innovative ways to do away with the requirement of rare earth elements. Last year, Ola Electric said it developed in-house rare-earth-free motors.

In October last year, Chara Technologies raised INR 52 Cr to set up a new factory in Bengaluru to develop rare-earth-free motors and controllers as an alternative to the rare earth magnet products.