Gati Drives, a deep-tech Startup, is a Bangalore-based company that has been able to raise a pre-seed funding round from Campus Fund. This is a strategic investment that will drive the company’s mission to modernize the electric motor industry by coming up with new developments of next-generation motors that will be highly efficient without using costly rare-earth materials. The new capital will be allocated to hasten the product development process, increase the production capacity, and establish collaborations with the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the appliance and HVAC market in India.

Core and focus of Gati Drive

Suyash Mishra and Gajendra Jain are the co-founders of the startup, and both have immense experience in motor research and development as employees of Naxatra Labs and Motorama. The Gati Drives Company was founded based on addressing a serious problem in the Indian market: the high dependence on imported BLDC motors, and the persistent use of 100-year-old inefficient induction motor technology in more than 90% of the appliances. The Indian manufacturers are in a dilemma of either using expensive imported motors or using local induction motors that use a large percentage of electricity to heat their surroundings.

The essence of innovation of Gati Drives is its own proprietary Slip Synchronous Permanent Magnet (SSPM). The motors are almost 90% efficient, as efficient as the high-end BLDC motors, and much cheaper. The most notable aspect of this technology is that it can be considered a 100% local technology that uses ferrite magnets produced in India and native RISC-V microcontrollers. This is an effective way of not relying on rare-earth materials, 90% of which are now dominated by international exports made by China. The SSPM motors developed by Gati can be repaired at the component level, unlike traditional motors, which can regularly be replaced in the event of a fault, and thus are an attractive option in price-sensitive markets.

Growth opportunities and strategic expansion

The motor market of sub-1kW is now worth $4.7 billion in India and is still in steady growth. This is further strengthened by the growing HVAC market that is expected to grow to $29.4 billion by 2030, owing to the increase in prosperity of the middle classes and government regulations on the use of energy-efficient appliances. Gati Drives is tailoring itself to fill this gaping market by offering a domestic solution that will ensure the independence of the supply chain and substantial energy savings to households.

After the successful funding round, Gati Drives is working on commercial deployment and certification. The company has already deployed pilot programs with some of the leading industry players and hopes to achieve a production range of 1000-2000 units in one month by the beginning of 2026. Although the short-term objective has been on appliances such as fans and pumps, the company has long-term strategies to extend its rare-earth-free technology to the electric vehicle (EV) motor industry.

Conclusion

The collaboration between Gati Drives and Campus Fund is the sign of an emerging trend to fund student-founded, deep-tech startups that solve core industrial gaps. Gati Drives is not only seeking to transform the Indian motor industry, but also open the path to making the nation a global center of hi-tech motor technology through breaking the trade-off of cost and efficiency. This shift towards locally-sourced, rare-earth-free options is a major move towards energy efficiency and industrial self-reliance in India.