Booster Fuels is generating $180,000 per day with its technology-fueled, parking lot-focused gas delivery business.
The 3-year-old startup, which originally launched in Seattle but relocated to Silicon Valley, continues to pick up traction as it delivers gas to office parking lots in the Bay Area, Dallas-Fort Worth, and San Diego regions.
Booster CEO Frank Mycroft, a former Boeing engineer and executive at Redmond, Wash.-based Planetary Resources, spoke to CNBC last week about the company. “Gas hasn’t changed much in 50 years,” he told CNBC. “The [Booster Fuels] concept is really taking this old world industry and leveraging mobile technology and machine learning technology to allow us to deliver gas to people without any of the inconvenience.”
Booster now serves more than 20,000 customers per week including Facebook, Frito-Lay, Cisco, PayPal, and others that can offer the service as a perk to employees. It recently eclipsed one million total deliveries and is live in 20 cities. Booster will launch in the Seattle area next year, along with other additional markets, the company confirmed with GeekWire.
Users can request gas from Booster with a few buttons on its app and a service professional — who are Booster employees and receive benefits — shows up soon after in a custom-built mini-tanker to refuel the vehicle. The company is able to offer similar prices to what you’ll find at the local gas station and does not charge a service or subscription fee. Mycroft told CNBC that consumers pay 40 cents per gallon at a gas station that go toward property lease costs.
U.S. car owners consumed 142.98 billion gallons last year; that number dropped for the first time since 2012, Bloomberg reported. Mycroft said Booster’s model can also be used for alternative energy solutions.
Booster has developed its own transportation equipment; supply procurement; routing algorithms; and mobile app experience. It has partnerships with city government officials who have approved its service model in regard to appropriate regulations.
Booster competes with companies like Yoshi and Filld — which raised $15 million last month — though differs by focusing on corporate parking lots. Booster also provides fuel for vehicles at university campuses, as well as to commercial fleets. Its service offerings include tire inflation and replacing windshield wipers, in addition to refueling your tank. Booster said it has saved customers 1.3 million miles by not driving to the gas station.
Last year, Booster raised a $20 million round. Total funding to date is $32 million. Investors include Conversion Capital; Maveron; Madrona Venture Group; Version One; Perot Jain LP; RRE Venture; Stanford’s StartX Fund; BADR Investments; and U.S. Venture Inc.
