Piston, a Cupertino, California-based startup replacing the fuel card with a cardless payment network for commercial fleets, has raised a $15 million Series A led by FPV Ventures. Spark Capital and Pear VC also participated, bringing the company's total funding to $22.5 million.

The company was founded by CEO Vikram Sekhon and Shivam Shah.

Taking the Card Out of Fleet Fuel

Trucking and delivery companies have long relied on plastic fuel cards to pay at the pump. Those cards are easy to skim, share or misuse, and fleet operators spend heavily on software that tries to catch fraud after it happens.

Piston removes the card entirely. Its platform uses mobile authorization at the point of sale, approving each purchase for a specific driver and a specific vehicle before fuel is dispensed.

"Fleet fuel fraud is a physical card problem, disguised as a detection issue," Sekhon said. "We removed the card and built a network that authorizes every purchase for a specific driver and vehicle at the point of sale."

Building a Network

Piston says payment volume on its platform grew eight times over the past year, while its merchant network expanded roughly fortyfold. It is now live at more than 2,000 fuel stations across 48 states and reports a 98% customer retention rate.

The company has certified point-of-sale integrations with systems that cover 95% of U.S. merchant fuel sites, a key technical hurdle for any payments company trying to work at the pump.

FPV Ventures partner Nikunj Kothari pointed to the economics of that approach. "Piston moves that money over its own rails, with no card networks or intermediaries in between," he said.

Where the Money Goes

Piston plans to use the Series A to accelerate its national network buildout, continue product development and add senior leadership. The company aims to reach coverage in every U.S. region within 18 months.

Retail Technology Innovation Hub described the round as fuel for building out that U.S. network, which is the core of Piston's pitch to both fleets and fuel merchants.

Why It Matters

Fuel is one of the largest operating expenses for any fleet, and the fleet card market has been dominated for decades by a handful of incumbents that make money on transaction fees. A closed-loop network that cuts out card rails could lower costs for merchants while giving fleet operators tighter control over spending.

The challenge is coverage: drivers need to be able to fill up wherever the route takes them. With 2,000 stations live and integrations reaching most of the country's fuel sites, Piston is betting it can close that gap quickly enough to win fleets away from the plastic card.

Source

FinTech Global — "Piston raises $15m to scale cardless fuel payments"