Niveshaay leads Rs 325 cr funding in Waaree Energy Storage Systems to boost battery manufacturing

Mumbai, Nov 12 (PTI) Investment firm Niveshaay on Tuesday said it has led a Rs 325 crore funding round in Waaree Energy Storage Systems to expand the Waaree Group's battery arm.

The fund will be used to enhance cell and pack manufacturing capacity, strengthen engineering and validation capabilities, and scale containerised Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) across India and select global markets.

Niveshaay said it has cumulatively invested Rs 128 crore in the round through its Category II Niveshaay Sambhav Fund, Category III Niveshaay Hedgehogs Fund, and the newly launched one of India's first dedicated Collective Investment Vehicles (CIVs,) Niveshaay WESS Fund.

Other co-investors in the round include Vivek Jain (Managing Director, Action Tesa and GrowthSphere) and Saket Agarwal (former Director, Apollo Pipes Ltd and Apollo Tricoat), among others, Niveshaay, the SEBI-registered investment advisory and boutique asset management firm said.

"Battery storage will play a key role in India's clean energy growth… they expand a domestic storage platform with scale and technology depth," said Arvind Kothari, Founder at Niveshaay.

India's storage market is growing with policy support through viability-gap funding for grid-scale storage, the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for advanced cells, and the Energy Storage Obligation (ESO), the firm said.

Cumulative installations, according to Niveshaay, are expected to reach around 200 GWh by 2030 from 0.4 GWh in 2024.

As BESS systems evolve from short-duration buffers to multi-day storage and hybrid configurations, Waaree's vertically integrated model enables it to capture value across the manufacturing, integration, and long-term service layers, it said.

Waaree's existing solar manufacturing and EPC capabilities create strong alignment for battery integration, Kothari said.

The global energy transition is shifting focus from generation capacity to reliability, flexibility, and storage. Falling lithium-ion costs and supportive policy frameworks have made storage economically viable for utilities and commercial users alike, it said.

Worldwide, storage is the defining theme of the decade; India's trajectory now mirrors that of the US and Europe, where multi-hour battery systems underpin renewable integration, grid stability, and peak demand management, the company said.

Niveshaay investments across listed and unlisted equities and is known for its early-stage, high-conviction investments in India's manufacturing and energy-transition ecosystem. PTI IAS TRB DR DR DR