Funding News
Piston Raises $7.5M to Disrupt Fleet Fuel Payments With Cardless, Fraud-Free Platform
With roots in Kolkata and HQ in Cupertino, this fast-growing startup is rebuilding the fuel payments ecosystem from scratch—eliminating fraud, slashing costs, and helping independent gas stations thrive.
Piston—a cardless payment platform built for fleets and gas stations—has announced a $6.1 million seed round, led by Spark Capital, with support from Pear VC and BOND. Combined with a $1.4 million pre-seed through the PearX accelerator, the company’s total funding now stands at $7.5 million.
Founded by former fleet operators Vikram Sekhon and Shivam Shah, Piston is replacing outdated card networks with a direct, app-based payment system that connects truck drivers and gas stations through secure QR code transactions. This eliminates fraud, hidden fees, and reconciliation chaos—problems the founders faced firsthand while running their own fleets.
“Fuel was our second-largest cost after payroll—and the most unpredictable,” said Sekhon, now Piston’s CEO. “The existing solutions only added complexity. So we built one ourselves, from the ground up.”
Cardless, Contactless, and Chaos-Free
Piston’s app-generated QR codes tie each transaction to the specific vehicle, time, location, and fuel type—streamlining operations and minimizing errors. On the gas station side, independent operators, who make up 90% of the market, can now directly connect with commercial demand without costly hardware or third-party platforms.
Already live across 800+ stations and serving 120+ fleets, Piston processes over $20 million in annualized volume and is growing at 50% month-over-month. According to co-founder Shivam Shah, Piston’s platform is uniquely engineered in Kolkata, where the company has rapidly scaled its engineering and operations teams.
“Being from Kolkata gave me the conviction that we could build a global fintech product from here,” said Shah. “We’ve gone from five to 25 people in a year, and we’re doubling down in India.”
Winning Support Across the Ecosystem
Investors are bullish on Piston’s mission. “Vikram and Shivam lived this problem,” said Arpan Shah of Spark Capital. “They’re not just replacing cards—they’re creating a smarter, transparent payment rail that benefits both drivers and stations.”
Pear VC’s Shravan Reddy added, “They exceeded every growth metric during our accelerator. We’re thrilled to back them as they redefine this overlooked corner of transportation.”
Fleet operators agree. “Fuel cards were bleeding us dry,” said Ash Kapoor of Saga Kapital Group, which runs a 200+ truck fleet. “With Piston, our costs dropped, our drivers stopped wasting time at pumps, and our back office can breathe.”
What’s Next for Piston?
With fresh capital, Piston is hiring aggressively in go-to-market and product roles across Cupertino, Lehi, and Kolkata. The company is also expanding its independent gas station partner network nationwide, giving small operators the tools to compete for commercial fuel dollars.
As the global transportation industry faces rising costs and margin pressures, Piston’s approach—direct, transparent, and built by operators—could be the innovation fleets didn’t know they needed.
