App-based fuel delivery platform FuelBuddy on Sunday said it has acquired Bengaluru-based on-demand fuel delivery startup MyPetrolPump, which will provide it access to new geographies and customers. With this acquisition, FuelBuddy will have over 100 refuellers under management, servicing 30 cities and all market segments with a combined delivery volume of nearly 40 million litres along with an experience of nearly 100,000 processed orders. It focuses largely on the bulk category. The synergy between the two organisations is huge and am sure both the teams put together will deliver high growth and great results. The combined company is well poised to capture all key markets and segments across the country, said Gautam Malhotra, Founder, FeulBuddy.
MyPetrolPump team has built a great platform and business in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune. Coupled with the FuelBuddy network, the combined entity will be present and delivering fuel in 30 cities across India, he said. This acquisition also kicks off the consolidation process in this space and FuelBuddy will be looking at smaller bolt-on acquisitions to further consolidate the industry and create a solid footing for itself, said Malhotra. While entry barriers to this business may seem low, the model requires licensing, technology, financial strength and support of long-term investors to create a large, sustainable and growth oriented-organisation, he said. “We have few more strategic projects lined up which should take shape over the next 3-4 months. Coupled with the MPP acquisition, these strategic projects will lead to huge value creation for all the stakeholders of FuelBuddy, he added.
Serving the institutional B2B buyers, FuelBuddy’s average order size is 1700 litres while MyPetrolPump’s average order size is 300 litres. Post consolidation, FuelBuddy will be able to service both bulk and non-bulk categories of customers, the company said. The high Speed Diesel market stands at USD 100 billion in India and within that the doorstep HSD delivery model has the potential of up to 26 per cent market share, implying a USD 26 billion marketplace for startups like FuelBuddy, it stated. “As part of this transaction, we are extremely happy to become the largest fuel delivery company serving customers pan India. The combined strengths of the two leading companies in this space opens up new opportunities for us to aggressively go after the USD 100 billion market opportunity. “We would now be able to serve customers from tier-2 cities and expand our footprints to rural areas too, said Ashish Gupta, Co-founder, MyPetrolPump. In the recent past, FuelBuddy had raised Rs 29.5 crore and MyPetrolPump had raised Rs 14 crore in funding for meeting expansion plans, according to the release.
