When people talk about clean energy, the conversation usually drifts toward solar panels, electric cars, or wind turbines. But here’s the thing: most factories still run with old habits and outdated equipment, leaking energy like a faucet with a broken seal. No one notices until the bills pile up—or worse, when emissions reports arrive.
That’s the quiet crisis Zerowatt Energy Intelligence decided to tackle.
The Problem They’re Solving
India’s industrial sector—responsible for nearly 40% of the country’s total energy use—hemorrhages energy through inefficient machines, idle equipment, and blind spots in monitoring. Motors hum when they shouldn’t. Compressors overcompensate. Machines run overnight when no one’s around. And until recently, most of it went unnoticed.
Traditional energy audits? They’re done once a year, often with clipboard checklists and thermal guns. Zerowatt found that unacceptable.
So What Does Zerowatt Actually Do?
Zerowatt builds real-time energy intelligence systems. Their core product is a palm-sized device that connects to a factory’s electrical panel, combined with an AI-powered dashboard that tracks energy consumption across every machine, circuit, and section of a facility—down to the second.
Unlike traditional systems that update every 15 minutes, Zerowatt’s solution pushes live data every second. The AI flags anomalies instantly: Is that motor drawing too much current? Why is this assembly line still consuming power at 3 AM? Why did the compressor spike right after shift change?
Factories using Zerowatt’s system typically cut their power bills by 8–12%. But the bigger deal is carbon: collectively, their clients have shaved over 78,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually. That’s the rough equivalent of taking 17,000 petrol cars off the road or planting 3.9 million trees every year.
Who’s Using It?
Zerowatt already works with 100+ industrial clients across India. Their client list includes Mahindra Aerospace, Peekay Steel, Medreich Pharma, Infoparks Kerala, and even Malayala Manorama. They’ve installed systems across sectors—automobile, steel, glass, pharma, food, textiles.
The platform doesn’t just spit out data. It offers actionable insights and sends alerts before things go wrong. That predictive edge is what makes it more than a monitoring tool—it’s a decision-making engine.
The Origin Story
Zerowatt was founded by three ex-NTPC engineers: Ansha Naji, Sooraj Surendran, and Subin Abid. After working in large energy setups, they realized the real savings weren’t in producing more energy—but in using less, smartly.
The company took shape in Kerala in 2020, launched from the ground up without VC funding. Bootstrapped initially, they leaned on institutional support—Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) and guidance from IIT Madras’s incubation program. That’s where the idea got polish, funding connections, and technical mentoring.
By 2023, they were profitable and expanding across India.
The Big Move: ₹116 Crore Expansion into the UK
Now comes the next chapter. Zerowatt is going global.
In July 2025, the company announced an investment of ₹116 crore (roughly £10 million) to set up its first international base in Leicester, United Kingdom. The plan is clear: bring India’s frugal innovation into the heart of the UK’s industrial economy.
The investment will be used to:
- Build a UK headquarters and R&D lab in Leicester
- Set up sales and support teams in Manchester, Edinburgh, and London
- Hire at least 50 local staff over the next 3 years
- Deploy pilot programs across UK manufacturing and public utilities
The move is bolstered by the India–UK Free Trade Agreement, which opened up easier market access and trade incentives for clean tech companies. The UK’s own push toward Net Zero by 2050 aligns squarely with Zerowatt’s promise: fast, affordable decarbonization tools.
In fact, their systems are already being piloted with several mid-sized UK manufacturers and energy-intensive SMEs, according to internal sources close to the company.
Why It Matters
For a startup that began in the backwaters of Alappuzha, this isn’t just a win—it’s a statement. That climate tech doesn’t always need to be flashy or VC-fueled. Sometimes, it just needs to be useful. Repeatable. Scalable.
And perhaps most importantly, local problems can birth global solutions.
Zerowatt isn’t just exporting a product—it’s exporting an idea: that waste is optional, and that the right data, delivered at the right time, can turn any factory into a climate ally.
What’s Next
- Scale across Europe after the UK rollout
- Launch a lightweight SMB version of their platform
- Double India installs to 300+ sites by 2026
- Cross ₹40 crore in annual revenue within 2 years
There’s no glitz here. No unicorn valuation chase. Just a team building smart tech that quietly saves money and the planet, one kilowatt at a time.
