Hate Long Queues? This Shark Tank India Startup Helps People Find Less Crowded Fuel Stations

Just like most teenagers, a BITS Pilani engineer named Vaibhav Kaushik tried driving a car at the age of 18. However, he would often end up getting into accidents. That is when he decided to stop driving and become a regular user of cab services like Ola and Uber.

Little did he know that his decision to quit driving would lead to the birth of a startup idea which aimed to decongest fuel stations in India. It had even appeared on Shark Tank India.

When Did The Startup Idea Come Up?

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In 2019, Vaibhav, an engineer from BITS Pilani, was doing an internship in Greater Noida. During the half-hour commute between his home and office, he used to strike up conversations with cab drivers. They mainly drove CNG vehicles and this is where he learnt about their biggest problem.

¡°All the drivers complained of one single problem ¨C the line at the fuel station was very long. Out of the 10 hours they spent on the road, an hour was wasted at these fuel stations daily. The cab drivers told me that they lost 10 percent of their daily earnings idling away in the queue,¡± Vaibhav said, as per The Better India.

Wouldn¡¯t it be wonderful if the cab driver could know which fuel station had a shorter waiting time? And that¡¯s how the Noida-based startup ¡®Nawgati¡¯ came to life.

All aged 20 then, and in his third year of engineering, Vaibhav thought that this problem must have been solved by someone. To his surprise, when he learnt that there was no solution, he started working on one with his friends, Aalaap Nair and Aryan Sisodia.

How Did The Startup Begin?

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They researched various pain points from the perspective of customers and fuel stations. They then spoke to fuel providers and examined their in-house challenges and difficulties. After this, they built the technology, a queue management platform, which would help both fuel stations and customers.

Which Solutions Did The Startup Come Up With?

They came up with two solutions, an app for consumers, and its flagship product, Aaveg, a B2B platform, for fuel companies.

It helps improve compliance, achieve operational efficiency, monitor real-time congestion, and direct customers to less crowded stations nearby. ¡®Aaveg¡¯ which is Sanskrit for impulse, is built on a plug-and-play framework and aims to provide fuel companies ¡®data within an impulse¡¯.

This data and metrics help companies increase sales, and reduce recurring costs, according to the founders. They get access to the vehicles fuelling at their station, how much time each vehicle is waiting, how much time is spent on fuelling every vehicle, which dispensers are being used more, and what are the inefficiencies, amongst other things.

As per the report, Nawgati works on a subscription-based model and charges fuel stations on a monthly basis, starting from Rs 5000.

This technology, which is saving money for fuel companies, was built at BITS Pilani in 2019 through the college¡¯s incubation program, Pilani Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development Society (PIEDS).

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What Does The Startup Do For Customers?

This solution was built with cab drivers in mind, to help them save time. For this, the company has developed an application. ¡°Nawgati fueling app is the largest fuel discovery application in the country. You can use the application to navigate to a CNG/petrol/diesel station on your route or find one closest to you. We have more than a million downloads on the app so far,¡± adds Vaibhav, co-founder & CEO of Nawgati.

The four-year-old app is currently free, but the founders have plans to roll out a 'freemium' model soon, where they would offer basic features for free, but charge for the premium features.

When Did They Appear On Shark Tank India?

The founders had appeared on Shark Tank Season 2 and signed a deal of Rs 67 lakh for 3 percent equity. This gave a boost to Nawgati and led to more dealers reaching out to them, as per the report. The startup is also backed by the Department of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Fast forward to now, the startup is run by two 25-year-olds and one 24-year-old and wants to become synonymous with fuel.

Also Read: How Shark Tank Judge Mark Cuban Went Nearly Broke At The Age Of 27

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