Buyofuel Joins Hands With Sai Vasudev Briquettes to Make Biomass Fuel Available, Affordable, Accessible for All

Under this partnership, the leading online marketplace for green fuels will make biomass briquettes available on its platform for buying and selling.

Buyofuel will support the manufacturer with regular supply of raw materials including agricultural waste sourced from farmers to empower stakeholders and build a circular economy.

Taking another leap towards making cleaner energy sources available, affordable and accessible for all, Buyofuel has entered a partnership with Sai Vasudev Briquettes. Under this partnership, the company, which is India's leading online marketplace for green fuels, will make environment-friendly biomass briquettes available for buying and selling on its platform.

A briquette (also spelled briquet) is a compressed block of coal dust or other combustible material (such as charcoal, sawdust, wood chips, peat, or paper) used for fuel as well as for kindling to start a fire.

Currently, briquetting is one of the suitable evolving technologies of waste materials conversion to solid biofuels for clean fuel or energy purposes. 

Notably, Buyofuel has built a vast network of raw material aggregators, biofuel manufacturers, fuel consumers and waste generators to bridge the demand and supply gap. With this partnership, it aims to benefit its partners by making trading of briquettes easier and hassle-free. This step is further aligned with its goal of replacing conventional energy sources, utilizing waste materials, accelerating decarbonisation and building a circular economy.

According to Buyofuel, the switch to cleaner energy is gaining pace as industries and organizations are putting sustainability at the core of their strategies. This transition has heightened the demand for biomass briquettes which are great replacements for conventional, carbon-emitting fuels to reduce greenhouse gases emissions and support the larger goal of achieving sustainable development goals. The partnership will make briquettes more accessible and will accelerate replacement of fossil fuels. This will also pave the way for unconventional raw materials like dust generated from coir manufacturing, garden waste, etc. to become a part of the biofuel value chain.

Speaking about the partnership, CEO of Buyofuel, Mr. Kishan Karunakaran said," Our partnership with Sai Vasudev Briquettes helps us inch closer to our objective of making green fuel available, accessible and affordable for all. This also gives us an opportunity to partner with like-minded businesses who are making result-oriented efforts towards achieving common goals like accelerating decarbonisation and building a sustainable future. We are confident that this partnership will create a meaningful social impact, empower stakeholders and most importantly accelerate adoption of clean energy sources by replacing fossil fuels.”

The importance of briquettes in combating climate change has been widely acknowledged as they are more efficient, cleaner, cheaper and eco-friendly than conventional fuels like coal or firewood. Since briquettes are made of organic residues, their carbon emissions are much lower than fossil fuels. These are great choices to utilize agricultural waste collected from farms, gardens and other agricultural places, reduce the amount of waste going into landfills and stubble, and empower farmers with additional sources of income generation.

Also, this partnership is a reflection of the company’s support to emerging and innovative entrepreneurs and farmers who are working and contributing towards building a better environment. Buyofuel will act as a direct link between the manufacturer, raw materials providers for the production of briquettes, sellers and the customers, thus benefiting all stakeholders. With this, it will ensure a regular supply of raw materials for manufacturing briquettes in addition to ensuring regular and direct market access. This will encourage manufacturers like Sai Vasudev Briquettes to focus on their core area of manufacturing, without having to worry about procuring the raw materials for production. The step will further make it easier to take actions that contribute to the economy through productive interaction between businesses and individuals who want to contribute more towards a better environment.

About Buyofuel: The primary vision behind Buyofuel is to create an empowering platform

for trading of Biofuel based commodities in a quick and secure manner, providing a

nurturing platform with verified buyers and sellers.

India’s 1st Online Bio-Fuel Marketplace, BuyoFuel Raises 11.5 Cr in Pre-Series A Round led by Inflection Point Ventures

• Buyofuel is an online marketplace for all types of biofuels and wastes which completely digitizes buying and selling biofuels and wastes.
• Buyofuel was selected as ‘Top 10 Startups of Tamil Nadu’ by Startup TN, Tamil Nadu Government in 2021
• IPV has so far invested over Rs. 550 Cr across 140+ deals

Online alternate fuel marketplace Buyofuel has raised over Rs 11.5 Cr in a Pre-Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures (IPV). The round also saw participation from Venture Catalysts, LetsVenture, Lead Angels Fund, and Gruhas Proptech. The funds raised will be utilised towards expanding the services across geographies, development of product offerings as well as technology.

The startup has the largest supply base of quality assured-biofuels and fuel consumers, offering economic prices for wastes and biofuels. Buyer-base with buy capacity of more than 6,00,000 metric tonnes/month and Seller-base with sell capacity of more than 2,00,000 metric tonnes/month. For sellers, registering with the platform is a seamless experience as all the customers who visit the platform are 100% verified. The team at Buyofuel ensures 100% transparency with the customers, updating them with real time progress throughout the order execution. The consignment is tracked from loading to unloading point to ensure timely delivery.

Ankur Mittal, Co-founder & COO, Inflection Point Ventures says, “Biofuels are a powerful alternative fuel substitute for most of the mainstream fossil fuel options whether diesel, petrol or even CNG. Buyofuel has an ambition to scale its business and make the adoption of clean fuel options seamless and more efficient. At IPV, we are keenly watching the ESG and Cleantech segment and have made bets across different business models. We back the vision of Buyofuel founders and want to help them scale up faster.”

Buyofuel is the only online marketplace for all types of quality assured biofuels and wastes with a complete digitized interface. The Company has emerged with the largest seller and buyer base in the alternate fuel category. It is helping non-renewable fuel consumers to switch to low or zero emission fuel options and helping them to cut their carbon emissions by moving to biofuels. Buyofuel currently has over 1600 verified registered users, with a supply of biodiesel, solid biofuels and organic waste on a per-day basis. Their clients include large, reputed companies like Aditya Birla, JSW, TVS Tyres, Ramco Cements, Dalmia cements, Thermax and many others are registered users of Buyofuel. The company has recorded a monthly revenue of over Rs 2 Cr.

Kishan Karunakaran, Founder and CEO, Buyofuel says, "Buyofuel looks to mainstream biofuels as a major fuel in India’s energy mix by ensuring that biofuels contribute to more than 10% of India’s fuel consumption, Buyofuel’s journey for a green India has been tremendously supported by IPV. IPV has continuously engaged with Buyofuel on a regular basis and has played a big part in the growth of Buyofuel. We are glad that Buyofuel got to benefit from the tremendous experience that IPV team brings with it."

Buyofuel functions in the large energy & fuels market of India. India is currently the 3rd largest consumer of energy in the world, importing more than 80% of its fuel requirements while generating more than 350mn MT of organic wastes within India. Buyofuel aims to make India energy-secure and meet its emission goals by substituting fossil fuel consumption with biofuels manufactured within India, from wastes generated within India. Biofuels is a $110 Bn market globally today with the Indian biofuels market being about $10 Bn currently, Indian Biofuels market is growing rapidly and likely to be a $50 Bn market over the next few years.

About Buyofuel

Buyofuel is India’s 1st online marketplace for all types of biofuels and wastes which completely digitizes buying and selling biofuels and wastes. Buyofuel has the largest buyer base and seller base for biofuels and wastes making buying and selling biofuels and wastes easy at the best price with complete transparency and quality assurance.

About Inflection Point Ventures

Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) is an angel investing platform with over 7400 CXOs, HNIs, and Professionals to together invest in startups. The firm supports new-age entrepreneurs by providing them monetary & experiential capital and connecting them with a diverse group of investors. IPV has announced the launch of a $50 million CAT 2 AIF Physis Capital to invest in pre-Series A to series B growth-stage start-ups.

BioFuel Marketplace Buyofuel Raises Over Rs 1.6 Crore in Seed Round Led by Inflection Point Ventures

Kishan Karunakaran, CEO of Buyofuels

Buyofuel is India’s 1st online marketplace for all types of biofuels and wastes

IPV announces Buyofuel as its 38th deal for 2021; likely to invest Rs. 155 crore this year across 60 plus startups

IPV has so far invested Rs. 292 Cr across 100 deals

India’s 1st online marketplace for biofuels and wastes, Buyofuel has raised over Rs 1.6 crore in a Seed Round led by Inflection Point Ventures, one of India’s largest growing angel investment platforms. The funds raised will be utilised in expediting the marketing activities, working more on technology and signing new partnerships for business development.

Buyofuel currently has close to 500 verified registered users, with a supply capacity of more than 800 KL of biodiesel, 800 MT of solid biofuels and 1000 MT of organic waste on a per day basis. Many large reputed companies like Ramco Cements, Ultratech cements, Valeo and Thermax are registered users of Buyofuel. The startup is already replacing close to 500 MT of fossil fuels with biofuels on a monthly basis.

Ankur Mittal, Co-Founder, Inflection Point Ventures says, “Clean energy alternatives are the need of the hour. For India to become a trillion dollar economy, we are required to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and they also harm the environment. The Govt’s clear stand on clean energy has given this segment a big boost. At IPV, we have invested in a number of clean-energy startups and are witnessing their performance matrix show impressive numbers. Buyofuel is another step in that direction. We want to support sustainable, profit making startups and if they can make our planet better, then we are incentivised to support them even more."

L-R Venkateswaran Selvan (CTO), Kishan Karunakaran (CEO), Sumanth Kumar (CMO), Prasad P Nair (Ops Head)

Buyofuel was selected as ‘Top 10 Startups of Tamil Nadu’ by Startup TN, Tamil Nadu Government. It has also been chosen as the ‘Top 10 startups’ in Headstart Kickstart 2021. Incubated in AIC Raise, India’s 1st dedicated UN SDG goals incubator, Buyofuel was also awarded by Misfits as ‘Top 30 Social Innovation Startups’ in South Asia.

The startup has the largest supply base of quality assured-biofuels and fuel consumers, offering economic prices for wastes and biofuels. Registering with the platform is a seamless experience as all the customers who visit the platform are 100% verified. The team at Buyofuel ensures 100% transparency with the customers, updating them with real time progress throughout the order execution. The consignment is tracked from loading point to unloading point with utmost diligence.

Kishan Karunakaran, CEO, Buyofuel says, “Buyofuel looks to become India's single largest supply source of wastes for biofuel manufacturers and the single largest source of biofuels for fuel consumers over the next 12 months. It’s a great pleasure to receive IPV’s support to fulfil our aim. They bring so much more than funds to the table. IPV’s wide network across sectors offers us significant opportunities for market connections and partnerships that can help us scale up rapidly, further their solid team with significant expertise in key functions like finance compliments the strengths of our founding team very well."

Buyofuel functions in the large energy & fuels market of India. India is currently the 3rd largest consumer of energy in the world, importing more than 80% of its fuel requirements while generating more than 350mn MT of organic wastes within India. Buyofuel looks to make India energy secure and meet its emission goals by substituting fossil fuel consumption with biofuels manufactured within India, from wastes generated within India.

About Buyofuel

Buyofuel is India’s 1st online marketplace for all types of biofuels and wastes, founded in mid-2020 by a team with a cumulative experience of over 25 years in the biofuels & wastes sector and tech development.

Inflection Point Ventures is an angel investing platform with over 5500 CXOs, HNIs and Professionals to together invest in startups. The firm supports new-age entrepreneurs by providing them monetary & experiential capital and connecting them with a diverse group of investors. IPV, started in 2018 believes that ‘Everyone can Grow with Startups’ as it plans to invest INR 155 Cr in 2021 across 60 startups.

Buyofuel and IppoPay Startups from AIC Raise Incubator are among the Final Winners of TANSEED by Govt of Tamil Nadu

COIMBATORE, India, Feb. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ippo Pay and Buyofuel, two startups incubated under the AIC Raise supported by Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, are among the final ten winner startups in the Tamil Nadu Seed Grant Fund (TANSEED). This year's pitching saw an application of 1399 startups. 35 startups were shortlisted to go through intense boot camps and pitches, where 20 startups pitched in the finals to win. AIC Raise had four startups among the 35 shortlisted startups and three among the 20 startups that were selected for the final pitching. Of these 20 finalists, 2 startups, Ippo Pay and Buyofuel, emerged among the 10 winners on 14 February 2020. The winners carry the proud title along with the grant of Rs.10 Lakh each.

The Tamil Nadu Startup Seed Grant Fund (TANSEED) 2021 challenge is organized by The Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation Institute, Tamil Nadu (EDII-TN), the nodal agency implementing various initiatives to promote innovation and startup ecosystem, in association with Headstart Network Foundation.

The event was a three-day Bootcamp which consisted of one-on-one sessions by the teams with mentors. The teams then created and submitted pitch decks that were shortlisted for the final pitchfest. The shortlisted startups then presented their business in the pitch challenge, after which 10 teams were awarded a grant of Rs 10 lakh each to take their startups forward with support from StartupTN.

Speaking after the announcement, Mr. Mohan K, the founder of IppoPay and Mr. Kishan, the founder of Buyofuel, were delighted to be among the top 10 startup winners of this TANSEED edition.

"In our pitch, it is the collective effort from all that enabled us to be selected in in the top 10 TANSEED winners. After an elaborate and professional screening process we look forward to the worth of this achievement. We will work more harder and with more vigour to make Tamil Nadu, India and the world a better place," said Kishan, CEO, Buyofuel.

In addition Mr Kishan, CEO of Buyofuel echoed the continuous support the team has been receiving from AIC Raise.

"Buyofuel is incubated at AIC Raise and AIC Raise gives us constant updates on various grants and seed fund challenges. As a part of this, they sent us the application for TANSEED. The good part about AIC Raise is that they understand that entrepreneurs get stuck in their operations and so they continuously follow us up and get us to apply to most, if not all events happening around the world. The TANSEED Bootcamp and the sessions coupled with continuous guidance and feedback from AIC Raise and Headstart ensured that our pitch deck, more importantly the story and business of Buyofuel came out much more strongly. We are grateful," added Kishan, CEO, Buyofuel.

"This was our second-year entry, last year we were not among the finalists. We were a little sad that we did not get that but we are the people who never give up. We focus on working hard. We were confident enough to apply this year again because we have good traction and growth. The juries asked what the USP for IppoPay is compared to our competitors. There are no USPs at the moment and our main focus for 2021 is to position our startup into the market. We will come up with USP next. Our mission is to bring digital payment transformation to the entire Tamil Nadu in 2021," said Mohan, CEO, IppoPay.

"Much proud to be part of AIC Raise as a startup incubator and sharing the pleasure that our portfolio startups are getting recognized, this will encourage more aspiring entrepreneurs to start their dream ventures through us. We are always on a mission on supporting startups and innovators working Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and TANSEED helped us to validate the programs that we do at AIC Raise," said Ebin Ephrem Elavathingal, Senior Manager, AIC Raise.

The state launched the Tamil Nadu Startup and Innovation Policy 2018-23 in January 2019 and has organized the Tamil Nadu Innovation Grand Challenge (TNIGC) for the last three years. TNIGC has had three cohorts with a total of 16 startups awarded a seed grant of Rs 5 lakh per startup. The addition of the ten startups from this year's cohort brings the number to 26 startups to date.

About AIC Raise:

AIC Raise, supported by Atal Innovation Mission of NITI Aayog, Govt. of India, is India's first Startup Incubation Centre focusing on United Nations Sustainable Development Goals established by Rathinam Group of Institutions. AIC Raise is creating a holistic ecosystem for social start-ups for maximizing profits and benefits to society and the environment.

AIC Raise encourages and backups innovative startups with suitable physical infrastructure in terms of capital equipment and operating facilities, key domain knowledge support, coupled with the availability of sectoral experts for mentoring, business planning support, access to seed capital, market information, management, business strategy, industry partners, training as well as critical networking.

https://aicraise.com

Details about startups : https://aicraise.com/our-startups/

About IppoPay

IppoPay is a startup that provides Payment Solutions to Small businesses, SMEs, and Freelancers. They are a Payment Aggregator for businesses that collect and accept payments from their customers using Payment links, Invoice, Subscription, Social Commerce, and UPI. They target businesses, freelancers, homeprenures, and people who do business in Tier 2 and 3 cities, and rural areas. They have had traction of over 200 merchants signed up (50 active transaction merchants), Transactions worth 18 Crores, and BETA Mode: Transactions worth 1 Crore during September and October. In November they reached 16 Crores transaction value,32 Crores transaction value in December, and 91 Crores in January 2021. IppoPay projects to reach transactions worth 100 Crores in the next 5 months.

https://www.ippopay.com

About Buyofuel

The primary vision behind Buyofuel is to create an empowering platform for trading Biofuel-based commodities in a quick and secure manner, providing a nurturing platform with verified buyers and sellers. It is India's most favorite Greenfuel Marketplace.