India’s first online biofuel marketplace, Buyofuel raises Rs 11.5 crore in Pre-Series A round

New Delhi: Online alternate fuel marketplace Buyofuel has raised over Rs 11.5 crore in a Pre-Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures (IPV). The round also saw participation from Venture Catalysts, LetsVenture, Lead Angels Fund, and Gruhas Proptech.

The funds raised will be utilised towards expanding the services across geographies, development of product offerings as well as technology.

The startup has the largest supply base of quality assured-biofuels and fuel consumers, offering economic prices for wastes and biofuels. Buyer-base with buy capacity of more than 6,00,000 metric tonnes/month and Seller-base with sell capacity of more than 2,00,000 metric tonnes/month. For sellers, registering with the platform is a seamless experience as all the customers who visit the platform are 100% verified. The team at Buyofuel ensures 100% transparency with the customers, updating them with real time progress throughout the order execution. The consignment is tracked from loading to unloading point to ensure timely delivery.

Ankur Mittal, Co-founder & COO, Inflection Point Ventures says, “Biofuels are a powerful alternative fuel substitute for most of the mainstream fossil fuel options whether diesel, petrol or even CNG. Buyofuel has an ambition to scale its business and make the adoption of clean fuel options seamless and more efficient. At IPV, we are keenly watching the ESG and Cleantech segment and have made bets across different business models. We back the vision of Buyofuel founders and want to help them scale up faster.”

Buyofuel is the only online marketplace for all types of quality assured biofuels and wastes with a complete digitized interface. The Company has emerged with the largest seller and buyer base in the alternate fuel category. It is helping non-renewable fuel consumers to switch to low or zero emission fuel options and helping them to cut their carbon emissions by moving to biofuels. Buyofuel currently has over 1600 verified registered users, with a supply of biodiesel, solid biofuels and organic waste on a per-day basis. Their clients include large, reputed companies like Aditya Birla, JSW, TVS Tyres, Ramco Cements, Dalmia cements, Thermax and many others are registered users of Buyofuel. The company has recorded a monthly revenue of over Rs 2 Cr.

Kishan Karunakaran, Founder and CEO, Buyofuel says, “Buyofuel looks to mainstream biofuels as a major fuel in India’s energy mix by ensuring that biofuels contribute to more than 10% of India’s fuel consumption, Buyofuel’s journey for a green India has been tremendously supported by IPV. IPV has continuously engaged with Buyofuel on a regular basis and has played a big part in the growth of Buyofuel. We are glad that Buyofuel got to benefit from the tremendous experience that IPV team brings with it.”

Buyofuel functions in the large energy and fuels market of India. India is currently the 3rd largest consumer of energy in the world, importing more than 80% of its fuel requirements while generating more than 350mn MT of organic wastes within India.

Buyofuel aims to make India energy-secure and meet its emission goals by substituting fossil fuel consumption with biofuels manufactured within India, from wastes generated within India. Biofuels is a $110 Bn market globally today with the Indian biofuels market being about $10 Bn currently, Indian Biofuels market is growing rapidly and likely to be a $50 Bn market over the next few years.