Piston Raises $6.1M Seed Round to Disrupt Fleet Fuel Payments with QR-Based Platform

Piston, a Cupertino-based payments startup modernizing how commercial fleets pay for fuel, has raised $6.1M in seed funding led by Spark Capital, with participation from Pear VC and BOND. This brings Piston’s total funding to $7.5M, including a $1.4M pre-seed via PearX.

Founded by former fleet operators Vikram Sekhon and Shivam Shah, Piston replaces traditional fleet fuel cards with a cardless, app-based QR payment platform, eliminating fees, boosting transparency, and reducing fraud.

Key features:

> Drivers pay via QR codes generated on the app

> Transactions log vehicle ID, fuel type, location, and timestamp

> Gas stations need no new hardware or POS integrations

Traction so far:

> Used by 120+ fleet operators at 800+ gas stations

> $20M+ in annualized transaction volume

> 50% MoM growth

> Team scaled from 5 to 25+ since April 2024

> Ops & engineering hub also based in Kolkata

“Fuel was our second-largest cost after payroll. We tried every product on the market — nothing worked. So we built what we wish we had,” said Vikram Sekhon, Co-founder & CEO.

The new capital will go toward scaling engineering, operations, and go-to-market teams, and expanding Piston’s footprint across fleet-heavy corridors in the US and beyond.

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