India imports most of the critical metals needed to manufacture batteries, leaving the industry heavily dependent on global supply chains. At the same time, domestic battery waste continues to accumulate. Used lithium-ion batteries are often treated as hazardous waste, with conventional recycling methods requiring energy-intensive processes or chemical treatments to recover their raw materials.
Bengaluru-based Metastable Materials sees an opportunity in that waste. Founded in October 2021 by IIT Roorkee graduates Shubham Vishvakarma and Manikumar Uppala, the startup treats spent batteries as high-grade ore that can be refined to recover valuable metals.
The idea took shape during Vishvakarma’s final year in college, when he was researching lithium-ion battery chemistry. Before starting Metastable, Uppala spent three and a half years as an industrial engineer at NBC Bearings, part of the CK Birla Group, specialising in machine design and manufacturing. Vishvakarma also worked at the company's advanced materials division for three years.
Refining batteries without external chemicals
Metastable procures spent lithium-ion batteries and black mass, the powder left after batteries are crushed, from local scrap dealers, recyclers, and original equipment manufacturers. It handles the entire process, from procurement to underwater shredding, which eliminates fire risks and prevents the release of toxic gases.
At the heart of its technology is a trademarked reaction called Integrated Carbothermal Reduction. While conventional recycling methods use external chemical agents to break chemical bonds, Metastable’s process makes elements already present in the batteries, such as graphite and nickel-manganese-cobalt, react with one another.
“We react stuff inside the batteries with the stuff inside the batteries to separate things apart,” Vishvakarma explains.
Once the chemical bonds are broken, the metals are separated based on their physical properties. Copper powder is separated using density and ductility, lithium by dissolving it in water, and nickel and cobalt through magnetism.
The startup designs and manufactures most of its equipment in-house, including shredders, mills, magnetic separators, density separators, boilers, furnaces, and agitators. It has also developed a zero-liquid discharge system using mechanical vapour recompression, which compresses steam generated during boiling to boil additional water.
Metastable has six patent filings across Europe, the US, Japan, Korea, China and India, and has received its first patent grant in India.
Industrial customers and expansion plans
Metastable operates as a B2B refiner, supplying recovered metals to industrial users rather than battery-specific intermediates. It processes lithium into battery-grade lithium carbonate, which it supplies to glass, ceramics, and cement manufacturers.
Nickel is supplied to chemical producers making mixed hydroxide precipitate and to the stainless-steel industry. Cobalt goes to magnet and pigment manufacturers, copper to casting and busbar production, and aluminium to automotive casting.
The startup buys raw materials at market prices and sells refined commodities at prices linked to benchmarks on the London Metal Exchange, Shanghai Metal Exchange, MCX India and Bombay Metal Exchange.
Metastable began generating revenue in 2025. It has an office and a half-acre facility in the Harohalli Industrial Area in Bengaluru, along with a second facility in Delhi near its feedstock suppliers.
The Bengaluru plant has an installed processing capacity of 1,500 tonnes a year, with capacity utilisation doubling every quarter for three consecutive quarters.
The company raised a pre-seed round in January 2022 led by Log9 Materials founders Akshay Singhal and Kartik Hajela. This was followed by a seed round in 2023 from Surge (Peak XV Partners), Speciale Invest, and Theia Ventures.
Metastable is now preparing another funding round to finance larger commercial facilities.
“Our technology is proven, and customers are hungry,” Vishvakarma says. “We think this plant has done its duty of proving the technology, customers, and unit economics, and now we need a full-scale plant.”
Metastable Materials is part of YourStory's Tech30 cohort—a showcase of India's most promising startups of 2026, unveiled at TechSparks Bengaluru.
Edited by Teja Lele