Entellus Industries Raises INR 50 Cr To Scale Rare Earth Metals Manufacturing

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.

“Proving technical capabilities in rare earth metal and alloy manufacturing is non-trivial and we are the first ones to achieve it verifiably in India. We wish to use this advantage in making India a truly global hub for rare earth magnet manufacturing,” Kumar said.

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