Every factory that dyes fabric, plates metal, or processes steel produces the same headache — and industrial sustainability has many fronts: Solavio’s water-free solar cleaning tackles the water-energy nexus from the other side: wastewater laced with pollutants that conventional treatment tackles with — paradoxically — more chemicals. Coagulants, flocculants, dosing pumps, and the sludge they all leave behind. A Thane startup called Indra Water is betting the answer is not better chemistry, but no chemistry at all: its ElectroX platform cleans wastewater with electricity — process innovation replacing chemistry outright, the same instinct Sea6 Energy applies to replacing crude oil with seaweed.
The pitch, in the company’s own words: “We clean wastewater with electricity. No chemicals. No compromise.” Instead of dosing effluent with treatment chemicals, ElectroX runs it through electrochemical reactions — electro-chemical oxidation and coagulation — that break down pollutants using current alone. The units are modular, skid-mounted reactors that the company says scale from 50 litres to millions of litres, with a footprint it claims is 90% smaller than conventional plants.
The numbers behind the claim
Indra Water’s headline figures come from the company itself, so they deserve the usual care — but they are specific enough to interrogate. The official site claims “up to 99% water recovery” (note the “up to”) and “5+ billion litres of wastewater treated” to date. Earlier independent coverage gives a consistent growth curve: The Better India reported 3.2 billion litres in October 2025, and the Marico Innovation Foundation cited 2.5 billion around mid-2025. The trajectory checks out across sources.
The company also publishes avoided-burden estimates versus conventional treatment: 15,000+ tons of sludge, 13,500+ tons of treatment chemicals, and 3,500+ tons of emissions avoided. These are company estimates, not audited figures — but they illustrate the thesis: removing chemicals from the process removes the sludge, transport, and disposal chain that comes with them.
Key takeaway
Key takeaway: Indra Water isn’t selling a filter — it’s selling the removal of an entire chemical supply chain from industrial water treatment. If the “up to 99%” recovery holds at scale, the economics flip from compliance cost to water asset.
From a university challenge to Thane
Indra Water was founded in 2017 by Amrit Om Nayak and Krunal Patel, who began the work as master’s students at the University of Washington, entering environmental innovation challenges before bringing the technology to India. That academic origin shows in the product design: retrofit-ready skids, an IoT layer called Indra Spectrum for remote monitoring and control, and a plug-and-play pitch aimed at plant managers rather than civil engineers.
One naming trap to avoid, because even The Better India fell into it: the company is Indra Water. ElectroX is the name of its technology platform, not the company. Getting that right matters — conflating the two is how startup mythology starts.
“We clean wastewater with electricity. No chemicals. No compromise.” — Indra Water
The business case
Industrial water treatment is a compliance purchase — factories buy it because regulators require it. Indra Water’s bet is that electricity-driven treatment turns compliance from a chemical-consumables treadmill into a capital asset with lower operating cost. The client logos on its site — Unilever, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, the Aditya Birla Group (cited by the Marico Innovation Foundation) — suggest large industrials are willing to test that proposition.
The company raised a $4 million Series A in January 2024, led by Mela Ventures and Emerald Technology Ventures, with participation from Peak Sustainability Ventures and The Climate Angels. The team is 60+ people, and recognition has followed: the Marico Innovation Foundation, Forbes, the Cleantech Forum, the World Economic Forum, and Global Water Intelligence have all featured the company. The Marico Innovation Foundation describes the technology as “patented” — attributable to MIF as a credible third party, though no patent number was independently verified for this post.
The honest caveats: “up to 99%” is doing real work in that sentence, and performance will vary by effluent type. Electrochemical treatment is energy-intensive by nature — the company’s case is that it still beats the full lifecycle cost of chemical treatment, sludge handling, and disposal. That is a claim best tested against customer renewals and repeat orders, which the growing client list suggests are happening.
More Read
What is Indra Water?
Indra Water is a Thane, Maharashtra-based cleantech startup founded in 2017. It builds the ElectroX platform — modular reactors that treat industrial wastewater using electrochemical reactions instead of chemical dosing.
What is ElectroX — the company or the technology?
ElectroX is Indra Water’s technology platform, not the company name. Some coverage has conflated the two; the company is Indra Water.
Does it really recover 99% of water?
The company claims “up to 99% water recovery” — the “up to” matters, and performance will vary with the type of effluent being treated.
Who uses Indra Water’s systems?
Per the company, clients include Unilever, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Taj, Toyota Tsusho and the Aditya Birla Group, with deployments in India, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Is the technology patented?
The Marico Innovation Foundation describes it as “patented electrochemical technology.” No patent number was independently verified for this post.
Sources & further reading
- Indra Water — official site — Company claims on recovery rates, volumes treated, clients and technology
- Marico Innovation Foundation on Indra Water — Third-party validation: “patented electrochemical technology”, client references
- The Better India: Indra Water story — Independent reporting: 3.2 billion litres treated (Oct 2025), founder background
