TDK-Theia see $100 billion opportunity in India energy shift

Bengaluru: As tensions in West Asia and risks around the Strait of Hormuz sharpen concerns over global energy supplies, India’s industrial energy transition could open up a more than $100 billion opportunity by 2030, according to venture capital firms TDK Ventures and Theia Ventures.The two firms on Wednesday released a joint report arguing that India’s push toward industrial decarbonisation is no longer only a climate objective, but increasingly an energy-security imperative as the country remains heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels.“Historically, India has imported about 87% of crude oil,” Priya Shah, founder and general partner at Theia Ventures, said during a media roundtable.

She added that geopolitical instability in the Middle East had exposed “choke points” in India’s energy supply chain and underscored the need to move toward domestic clean-energy manufacturing.The report identifies long-duration energy storage, industrial IoT and digital twins, and energy-efficiency technologies as the biggest opportunities for startups and investors.Ravi Jain, investment director at TDK Ventures, said energy storage remains the “missing link” in India’s renewable energy push.

India has rapidly scaled solar installations, but a large portion of generated renewable power still goes unused because of inadequate storage infrastructure, he said.The investors said India should focus on sodium-ion, vanadium-flow and thermal battery chemistries instead of relying solely on lithium, warning that the country risks replacing crude dependence with lithium import dependence.“If we crack sodium-ion chemistry at scale in India, that company should be worth hundreds of billions of dollars,” Jain said.The firms said industrial energy efficiency is another major opportunity as India expands manufacturing under the government’s Make in India push. Much of India’s industrial infrastructure still relies on legacy machinery with low productivity and high energy consumption, creating opportunities for AI-led predictive maintenance, retrofit automation and smart energy management.The report also highlighted rising electricity demand from data centres, EV adoption and industrial digitisation as major long-term drivers of energy consumption in India.