Buyofuel: Towards Greener India
The company recognised a supply chain gap in the biofuel industry which is new and evolving. It enabled the startup to pivot its business model and adopt new strategies with the help of technology to meet the expanding requirements of the customers in this ever-changing market.
Buyofuel is in the process to raise funds once again by the end of this calendar year or before the end of the following fiscal year. For Buyofuel, last financial year was closed on 20 times more revenue compared to last year's March 2022, which was better than their initial expectations.
Roadblocks Of The Journey
The startup claim to have the largest supply base. It also thrives to mainstream biofuel as a major fuel in India’s energy mix by ensuring that biofuels contribute to more than 10 per cent of India’s fuel consumption.
Talking about the challenges that they witnessed in the initial years, Karunakaran said, “When we first entered the market, most of the sellers and waste generators were from the agricultural sector. The scepticism was evident since this was their first transaction via digital mode. As a result, there was significant resistance towards digitisation.”
Even today, they continue to face this difficulty as we expand towards each geographic location. However, we established a great support team to handle this situation.
As they entered each market, pre-existing waste traders who were taking advantage of waste generators, SPOs, and agro-processing businesses caused some backlash and obstacles for Buyofuel.
Some of the macro developments led to unprecedented challenges for businesses around the globe, and startups in India are no exception. Since the market was tougher, CEO< Karunakaran began to engage with numerous angel networks much earlier. They made a decision to decrease the number of new hires, in order to focus on having enough manpower and hiring people who can multitask so that they are able to cover a wider range of potential.
Going Forward
Last year, it expanded to various geographic locations and multiple states. Notably, it is set to enter the Europe market as well. In 2023, it will continue to make sizable investments in integrating AI, blockchain, and other technologies.
As far as the growth strategy is concerned, in the short term, it plans to acquire more sellers and buyers and ensure transactions happen via the platform. In the medium term, it intends to ensure expansions into other geographies. While, in the long run, Karunakaran aspires to automate the technology in such a way that all buyers and sellers are at ease using Buyofuel, similar to Amazon's platform.
