Battery Smart’s Pulkit Khurana On Navigating Deeptech’s Toughest Hurdles

Validation never stops.

That was Pulkit Khurana’s message to founders at BIGShift’s closing session, where the Battery Smart cofounder shared the unvarnished truth about building a deeptech business in India.

“Even now, when we’re a half-a-billion-dollar company, we still need to prove ourselves every day,” Khurana said. “That need for validation never really goes away.”

At the closing session of BIGShift – an accelerator programme for deeptech startups by Inc42 and India Accelerator – Khurana took the stage for a conversation on what it really takes to build in one of the hardest categories in Indian tech.

Khurana was addressing the founders of 13 early-stage deeptech startups who are part of the first cohort of the accelerator programme. 

Speaking during the physical bootcamp, Khurana as he broke down the hard truths of building a business in a capital-intensive, high-risk sector like deeptech and how he has navigated those waters with Battery Smart. In the fireside chat, Khurana recalled how investors and industry watchers doubted the very premise of his startup. 

“People questioned why battery swapping would work. They said it’s capital-intensive, that taking on 40-50% of an EV’s cost is risky, and wondered how e-rickshaw drivers, our primary customers, would afford it,” he said.

But instead of worrying about scale or optics, the Battery Smart team focused on proving customer demand and willingness to pay. That, Khurana said, was the real inflexion point.

“Every new category faces resistance early on. You need to show that customers are willing to pay and that retention is happening. Scale doesn’t matter at the beginning; what matters is proving that your model works. That’s what builds confidence,” he said. 

Founded in 2020 by IIT Kanpur graduates Khurana and Siddharth Sikka, Battery Smart offers battery swapping solutions and swapping stations across the country. In May this year, the Gurugram-based startup raised $29 Mn in its ongoing Series B extension round. 

Overall, the startup has raised a total funding of over $139 Mn to date from investors like Tiger Global, Blume Ventures, among others. 

A Business First, Product Second Mindset

For deeptech founders, Khurana stressed the importance of hitting the market as soon as the product is ready instead of waiting to perfect it. 

“We’ve always optimised for proof of concept from the customer, rather than chasing perfection in hardware or tech. That mindset has worked well for us,” Khurana said.

The cofounder admitted with a smile that the first few versions of Battery Smart’s batteries were so “bad” that the startup wouldn’t imagine using them now. But the key was getting them out in the market, listening to the customers and improving quickly. “You won’t have a perfect product on day one. You have to keep improving. You can’t wait to get everything right before entering the market,” he added. 

Khurana also shared that while being passionate about one’s idea has no alternative, founders should not fall in love with the product. 

“At the end of the day, we’re building a business. The product is just a path to get there. So the goal is to solve business problems, not to build the most beautiful or technically advanced product that no one’s willing to pay for,” Khurana said. 

BIGShift aims to transform India’s deeptech startups into global powerhouses, helping them build IP and scalable business models that can redefine entire sectors, by identifying, mentoring and funding them.