An entrepreneur who engages herself for the betterment of society. Sonia Singh, guided by her philosophy, “Live and let live,” she empowers women to speak up on climate issues and works toward creating a healthier planet and a brighter future for the next generation.
Sonia Singh is the Co-founder and Chief marketing officer of Zipbolt Innovations Private Limited and also the CEO of Ziptrax Clean Tech Private Limited. Both the companies were established in 2021 and 2019 respectively. Zipbolt Innovations focuses on electrifying mobility and accelerating EV adoption, removing polluting ICE vehicles to fight against Global Climate Change while Ziptrax Clean Tech deals with revolutionising lithium-ion battery management through AI powered repurposing and recycling.
Sonia completed her post graduation in sociology in 1986 and then did her MBA, one year management. Before entering into Zipbolt Innovations, she was part of BloodPORT HealthTech Solution Private Limited and Rotary International as a Social Impact Advisory. Her journey somehow always engaged with the betterment of society.
Sonia understands the need of technology in present days, but she also knows how climate is being affected. Her participation in social impact programs taught her about the environment, the circular economy and sustainability. Through this learning, she along with her business partner and son Rohan Singh Bais co-founded the company where they were focusing on the recovery of the disposable resources. She realises how technological gadgets like laptops and mobiles get disposed after the arrival of new technology and how such disposals can be harmful to the environment. She explains, “India is already hitting with electric vehicles on the road with government initiatives, but after some years of usage, these batteries of vehicles will be decommissioned. To address such problems, we are here”.
For Sonia, harming the environment in the name of innovation and development is concerning. Her goal is to balance both development and environment, to save the mother nature. She says, “It’s very high time to address this problem and to care for our environment.” During the COVID times, she acknowledged the growing dependency of app-based services like groceries and uber, which highlighted the growing shift towards the electric vehicles (EV). Along with that safety concerns also raised, especially battery related fires in vehicles. For these Sonia and Rohan addressed the issue, ensuring that OEM deployed batteries meet proper safety regulations to prevent hazardous incidents.
A New Discovery Leading to New Innovation
In the initial days of the company, Sonia realised that all the batteries which were arriving to the centre were not 100% dead, some of the batteries had even 40% to 45% charging which could be reutilised and repurposed. This discovery gave Sonia a way to work. With her talent and will to do something for nature, she started segregating those batteries which had some charging left in them. She says “out of the bulk of 100 batteries, about 25 to 30 batteries were there, which were in good condition and the team could work on it, redeploy it in the second life”. With this project in the pilot form, Sonia had also collaborated with TATA Motors. And very successfully have installed these repurposed batteries in e-rickshaws. In this way, she has taken a step forward to save the environment. Still there were times when gender holded more power than skill. Earlier, being a female, Sonia sometimes had customers hesitant to trust her in the technological field. She was focused on the business strategy first while relying on her technical team. However, eventually she actively engaged with the technical team, learned about the products and technological knowledge. This made her gain confidence to talk about technology with authority, “your homework will make you perfect”.
Sonia imagines India as pollution free one day. She is also the part of EV stakeholder in Delhi. This organisation involves the individuals who are in the EV ecosystem, including government bodies, manufacturers, charging infrastructure providers and consumers. She says “It will be a beautiful future for the children where they will not be sneezing and having any respiratory ailments. The old people travelling in autos and scooters without worrying about their burning eyes and health”. It’s going to be a beautiful and clean environment. She recognises that nowadays people are going to hill stations to breathe properly, to have a clean environment. Hence it has become crucial to change the method, to initiate a change, for the people, for the environment.
The government is also working to make a change. The environment needs a change from the present conditions.
Sonia also raises the concern of presence of lead in the ground water, which is due to the pollution from the vehicle. According to her by 2030, India will be 100% EV and it is going to be very crucial.
Journey is not Taken Alone
Family played a crucial role in her journey. She admits that there is no learning age and how learning from the young generation like her son, has been an eye-opening experience, inspiring action for a sustainable future. Recognising the urgency of addressing environmental challenges, she believes it is important to take responsibilities, implement steps and work towards saving the planet for the future generations. “We do not want our children to be sick and future generations should be healthy. And if you have a healthy life, you have a long life”, said by Sonia.
Being a public speaker, Sonia got the chance to speak about her new technology feature in the World Future Energy Summit in January 2025 at Abu Dhabi. She feels proud that she was invited there along with other thirty women entrepreneurs to talk about bringing change and address the crucial issues of living a healthy life. She has also received many awards like Women Social Leader from Rotary Blood Bank.
Her happiness lies in working for the society. One experience which is close to her heart throughout her journey is when she was able to repurpose the used batteries in e-rickshaws and then when she learned about the response from the rickshaw-walas , she felt as if she did something good.
She shares “we talked with so many rickshaw-walas and told them about this new kind of electric battery which will help you. They were very happy, after the survey we got to know that they got livelihood, they understood that batteries could be depleted, and they’re giving very good coverage”.
Her message to the young generation is to embrace their natural ability to multitask and confidently take the opportunities to create change. She encourages young women to speak their minds and take action. In life there can be low days as well, she advises to always think this lines in those times “this too will pass”. She believes in maintaining hope, positivity and determination. Perseverance and determination will give recognition and opportunities, whether it’s from colleagues, family or society. There are so many girls in today’s time who have made a change to others’ lives, to our lives.
Sonia promotes diversity by ensuring female engineers are part of her manufacturing teams and encourages other leaders to bring women into leadership roles. She believes in balancing hard work with relaxation. Her passion lies in working for the environment, she believes caring for the environment is the same as caring for a family.
