FuelBuddy raises Rs 17 crore in seed funding

FuelBuddy, the Delhi-based on-demand fuel-delivery start-up which commenced operations in May 2018, has announced raising fresh funds for business expansion in its latest round of seed funding. The company has raised Rs 17 crore (US$ 2.3 million) from individual investor SK Narvar, with a further capital commitment of an equal amount on need basis.

The licensed brand of Treis Solutions, FuelBuddy is an app-based IoT and cloud-enabled fuel-delivery service thataims to expand business and cater to more high-profile customers through access to fresh capital from the transaction.

FuelBuddy works closely with three of India’s largest oil marketing companies (OMCs) – IOCL, BPCL and HPCL – for procurement of diesel, and aims to offer a seamless doorstep delivery experience to its customers.

The company has built a single-stacksoftware, hardware, back-end support, communications protocol and RFID solutions platform, which aids into faster communication between its devices, and thus, efficient operations. FuelBuddy’s current clientele includes real-estate companies, hotels, schools and universities and manufacturing firms.

QH Talbros, Oyo, AIS, Eros, Infosys, Wipro, Amazon and Amity University are some of its customers among others. It is operating with a fleet of 5 trucks in the Delhi-NCR belt anddelivered 150kL of diesel in March 2019.The company has been able to expand into 22 more cities in the country including Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Thane, Ahmedabad and Kolkata; its overall fleet size is 32 vehicles.

SK Narvar, who is the chairman of NBFC - Capital India Corp – and also has investments in fintech, financial and the real-estate sectors said, “We see FuelBuddy as an innovative platform for providing solutions for a new economy. It blends perfectly with our vision and ideals of bringing transformative solutions to the market. We are confident that FuelBuddy will grow to become a market leader with highest standards of customer service and convenience, and a relentless focus on profitable growth.”

According to Adnan Kidwai, CEO, Fuel Buddy, “FuelBuddy is extremely grateful to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Ministry of Steel, for creating a new business platform with customer convenience at its epicentre. We are also thankful to Mr Narvar for his patronage and belief in our vision for the company and providing us with a growth platform.”

With the fresh investment in place, FuelBuddy aims to spend more on marketing, grow its fleet size and working capital, as well as strengthen its technical capabilities and hire more people in sales and marketing as it looks to enter new cities - Lucknow, Kanpur and Ludhiana - in the coming months.

In FY2020, FuelBuddy’s retail business closed at Rs 25 crore with overall volumes of 3,500kL of diesel. While it saw demand plummeting in the months of April and May earlier this year due to the nation-wide lock-down, it is growing at a much higher rate at the moment, albeit demand from certain sectors such as hospitality continue to remain low. However, notwithstanding the Covid-19 impact, the company aims to double its revenue in the ongoing fiscal.