Atomgrid, a Specialty Chemical Manufacturing platform, Secures Seed Funding Led by Merak Ventures

Atomgrid, a Specialty Chemical Manufacturing platform, Secures Seed Funding Led by Merak Ventures

New Delhi, India – May 09, 2024: Merak Ventures, a sector-agnostic early-stage, B2B venture capital (VC) firm, has announced a new investment in Atomgrid, an R&D-first platform for contract development, manufacturing, and sourcing of Specialty Chemicals. Merak Ventures led the INR 10 Cr seed round, in which other venture firms including Dexter Ventures, Upsparks, Point One Capital and the founders of UniCards (Nitin Gupta and Prateek Jindal) also participated. This marks Merak’s third significant investment of the year.

Atomgrid is co-founded by IIT-BHU alumni Lakshit Bansal, Siddharth Gupta, and Pratik Chowdhury, each bringing a special set of skills to the venture. Lakshit previously worked as a Business Head at WorkIndia, while Siddharth was a business head at Uni Cards and Pratik was working with Amazon.

As per the Frost & Sullivan Report, India’s specialty chemical companies are gaining favour with global MNCs because of the geopolitical shift after the outbreak of Covid-19 as the world looks to reduce its dependence on China. Currently China accounts for ~15-17% of the world’s exportable specialty chemicals, whereas India accounts for merely 1-2% indicating that the country has large scope of improvement and widespread opportunity. It is anticipated that Specialty chemicals will be the next great export pillar for India, with an anticipated growth of ~12.2% CAGR. [1]

Through interactions with over 250 manufacturers, the co-founders identified significant challenges Indian manufacturers face, including limited access to research and development resources, global distribution networks, efficient raw material sourcing, and technology-driven solutions. These factors contribute to suboptimal capacity utilisation and a restricted presence in the export market.

Sheetal Bahl, Partner at Merak Ventures, said, ” As India’s Specialty Chemicals sector drives industry growth, Atomgrid stands out by maximizing underused MSME capacities. More than just filling the demand-supply gap, Atomgrid redefines its role in the supply chain—from mere distributor to vital manufacturing partner. This strategic approach sets them apart, perfectly aligning with Merak Ventures’ commitment to innovative B2B tech solutions.”

Amidst a global shift in manufacturing operations from China to India, Atomgrid endeavours to facilitate India’s evolution into a prominent chemical manufacturing hub. The startup aspires to play a pivotal role in positioning India as a hub for Specialty Chemicals and accelerating the export of such chemicals worldwide from India.

“A massive global speciality chemical market coupled with inefficiencies that we see on a daily basis makes us believe that we are solving the right problem at Atomgrid. With this funding, we are poised to accelerate our mission of empowering Indian chemical manufacturers on a global scale. We are excited to have Merak Ventures as a partner to enhance our efforts and achieve our goals,” said Siddharth Gupta, co-founder at Atomgrid.

The investment from Merak Ventures will enable Atomgrid to expand its in-house R&D infrastructure, increase global outreach, build a supply chain tech platform, and hire teams across Business Development, R&D, and fulfilment functions.