Imran Khatri
Imran Khatri is a British-Asian entrepreneur and the founder of Volklec, a Coventry-based battery manufacturing startup building sustainable lithium-ion cells for the UK electric vehicle industry. Of South Asian heritage, Khatri brings a background rooted in strategic financial management and infrastructure development — having held senior roles in both banking and consultancy where he was responsible for securing significant funding for large-scale infrastructure projects across the UK and internationally.
His path to founding Volklec was shaped by a growing conviction that the UK’s net-zero ambitions could not be realised without a credible domestic battery supply chain. The country’s EV sector, particularly its distinctive community of small-volume, specialist, and niche vehicle manufacturers, remained entirely dependent on overseas battery suppliers, creating both commercial vulnerability and a credibility gap in the UK’s sustainability credentials. Khatri identified this as a structural market failure that required an industrial, rather than purely financial, solution.
Volklec was launched in May 2024 in partnership with Frontive Group and the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC), which provided both investment and access to its purpose-built manufacturing facility in Coventry. Rather than pursuing unproven cell chemistry from scratch — the approach that led to the high-profile failures of Britishvolt and Northvolt — Khatri took a pragmatic route, securing a technology licence from Far East Battery (FEB) in China. This allows Volklec to manufacture proven NMC 21700 cylindrical cells in the UK from the outset, with FEB engineering support ensuring high yields and product quality.
As Founder of Volklec, Khatri is responsible for the company’s strategic direction, fundraising, and positioning as a sustainable alternative to the fragmented and carbon-intensive battery supply chains that currently serve British manufacturers. The company’s long-term roadmap includes a 10 GWh UK gigafactory. Volklec raised £1.3 million in its first round of disclosed funding in 2024.
