Silicon Valley startup Booster Fuels is hitting the gas in Philadelphia.
The company's fleet of gas tank-filling bright purple trucks brings fuel directly to Amazon vehicles, UPS trucks, school buses or grocery delivery vehicles overnight or while on the road to save them time, gas and money.
Besides Amazon and UPS, one of Booster's most recognizable clients is Imperfect Foods, a grocery delivery platform. Imperfect Foods reached a deal last week to be acquired by Philadelphia-founded Misfits Market. Misfits Market CEO Abhi Ramesh lauded the efficiencies of Imperfect Foods' fleet of 475 delivery vans, many of which are fueled by Booster.
Booster CEO Frank Mycroft said the Silicon Valley company sees an acquisition like that "as an opportunity to grow within."
"These grocery delivery, food delivery businesses, they're tough right?" Mycroft said. "And everybody's scrambling to get that last bit of efficiency. I think that's why we've really been able to grow and resonate, is if you want to win in those businesses, you need a service like ours."
Mycroft's goal with the company is to make delivery services even faster and more efficient. He said that about 2% to 4% of gas is wasted traveling to get gas. He wants to save companies that time and money, and those companies wanted his services in Philadelphia.
"Frankly, it was really our existing customers pulling us to say, 'We're growing in Philly, it's an exciting market,'" Mycroft said. "We service some of the largest e-commerce companies, school bus companies, construction support companies, you name it. And so they really said, 'Can you come to Philly?' We looked at it and we said, 'You know what, we really want to be here.' We're excited."
Along with Philadelphia, Booster is also expanding to Boston and Portland, Oregon, bringing the number of major markets the startup operates in to 13. Mycroft said in its largest markets Booster has close to 100 employees that drive its trucks. Pay scale for those jobs is between $27 and $30 an hour.
The employee headcount in Philadelphia will start small in terms of employees and fuel-delivering vehicles, according to Mycroft. However, he thinks the size of both could triple by the end of next year, rivaling its largest markets. Mycroft isn't just focused on growing his own business in the region, though. The startup is tech-driven and collects comprehensive energy data on the fleets of vehicles it serves.
"We may be able to help local businesses that do similar services expand and do some of those services to support even more customers more quickly," Mycroft said. "So we're looking at both directly expanding, but also helping others in the community get better."
Booster has raised $213.6 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. That includes a $125 million Series D round in May after revenue more than doubled to over $100 million in the past year.
