Bengaluru-based Vimag Labs has been granted its fifth Indian patent for an electric motor that runs without any rare-earth magnets, staking a claim in one of the most crowded and geopolitically loaded corners of EV engineering. The $5-million startup, founded in September 2025 by ex-VW and Ford manufacturing veteran Manish Seth, calls its design the Virtual Magnet Synchronous Motor (VMSM).
Software-Defined Magnetism Instead Of Neodymium
Every mainstream EV on the road uses a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM), which relies on fixed rare-earth magnets embedded in the rotor to produce torque. VMSM does away with those magnets entirely, generating and controlling the rotor's magnetic field in real time through power electronics and proprietary control algorithms while keeping a brushless, slip-ring-free architecture. The company claims the platform matches or exceeds permanent-magnet performance, though the design has yet to be independently verified at production scale.
$5M Series A And A Manufacturing Route
The just-granted patent — titled "A Robust Rotating Transformer Excited Synchronous Motor and Its Control" — is the result of more than 87,600 engineering hours, according to CEO Manish Seth. Vimag Labs recently closed a $5 million Series A led by Accel, with Chakra Growth Fund and Thinkuvate participating, and has signed a manufacturing MoU with Jendamark to scale the platform. The startup is running pilots with two-wheeler and passenger-vehicle manufacturers and is targeting industrial systems from 200 kW to 600 kW as well as robotics, defense and cooling applications.
Riding The Rare-Earth Squeeze
China accounted for roughly 91% of global rare-earth refining and 94% of sintered permanent-magnet production in 2024. Beijing has since used that leverage: in April 2025 it imposed export controls on seven heavy rare-earth elements and related magnets, forcing US and European automakers to trim production while licences were sorted out. A follow-up October 2025 "0.1%" de-minimis rule targeting products containing Chinese rare-earth content was paused for one year on November 7, 2025, as part of a broader trade truce, but the pressure has not gone away. Vimag joins Tesla, GM/Stellantis-backed Niron Magnetics, Valeo's iBEE program, and Honda-funded Enedym in the hunt for a rare-earth-free drive unit; none has hit mass production yet.
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Reporting based on coverage from Electrek, SME Futures and Vimag Labs statements.