Piston, a California-headquartered fintech startup focused on modernizing commercial fuel payments, has announced the successful closure of its $7.5 million seed round. The latest $6.1 million infusion was led by Spark Capital, with additional backing from Pear VC and BOND. This follows an earlier $1.4 million pre-seed round through PearX, the accelerator program by Pear VC.

Replacing Traditional Fuel Cards with QR-Based Infrastructure

Founded by Vikram Sekhon and Shivam Shah, both former fleet operators, Piston aims to eliminate legacy card-based fuel systems. Instead, the startup has created a QR-code-enabled platform that connects directly with gas stations and links payments with key data like purchasing vehicle, time, location and fuel volume.

This model allows fuel stations to directly plug into Piston’s payment ecosystem using their current billing solutions with no extra hardware or middleware, resulting in lower startup costs and operational friction.

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Strong Market Traction and Growth Metrics

Piston’s solution has quickly gained traction. The company currently works with over 120 fleet customers and is connected to 800 fuel stations across the United States. It processes more than $20 million in annualized transaction volume, and reports a remarkable 50% month-over-month growth rate.

This rapid expansion underscores the growing demand for flexible, secure, and transparent fuel payment solutions in the U.S. fleet industry, which is estimated to be worth over $150 billion.

Bilateral Operations: U.S. Leadership with Indian Engineering

While Piston is headquartered in Cupertino, California, it maintains a secondary office in Lehi, Utah. Its engineering, operations, and customer success teams are primarily based in Kolkata, India, under the leadership of Shivam Shah.

Currently, the India team comprises 25 employees, with plans to double headcount within the next year. This strategic split allows the company to combine cost-efficient development with U.S.-based business growth.

Backed by Top-Tier Investors

The seed round was led by Spark Capital, a established venture firm with early investments in Slack, Twitter, and Postmates. Yasmin Razavi, General Partner at Spark Capital commented on the transaction:

“Piston is solving a real and large-scale problem in the U.S. fleet fueling space. Their platform is simple, elegant, and long overdue.”

Pear VC, an early supporter through its accelerator PearX, continues to back Piston’s mission, along with BOND, another top-tier venture firm known for investing in category-defining startups.

Looking Ahead: Expanding Beyond Fuel

Currently, fuel payments are in Piston’s cross-hairs in the short-term, but the startup also wants to provide the capability for future growth. In the future, Piston can envision their infrastructure being used to facilitate toll payments, parking fees, and vehicle maintenance transactions, essential expenses for fleet owners to manage.   

Piston is developing a centralized payment layer that is enhanced with data, creating a single view for operators, allowing for fleet costs to be managed, with a larger degree of transparency and operating efficiencies for fleet operators across the country.

Conclusion

After raising a strong $7.5 million seed round backed by top investors worldwide, Piston is poised to change the fuel payment experience for fleets across the U.S. Piston’s platform combines advanced QR code technology, a scalable software platform, and a global operations playbook to transform how fleets make fuel payments. The startup will be a major player in the fleet fintech space. With rapid growth, a robust client base, and plans to expand into tolls and maintenance, Piston is building a comprehensive infrastructure to streamline all fleet-related expenses, positioning itself as a long-term industry disruptor with unmatched global scalability.

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