This Startup is Building the Data Layer for India’s Fuel Stations

When Vaibhav Kaushik was studying at BITS Pilani, he would hear a constant complaint every time he hired a cab. The drivers had to wait in long queues and bear through extended filling times at CNG stations. “They would say there is no way of knowing what the waiting time is. They would go to the outlet and then at the very end moment, the attendants would say gas is not available, pressure is not right,” he tells AIM . Taxi drivers, who prefer CNG to petrol as it typically costs 40–50% less per kilometre, often have to wait for hours, sometimes even during active rides, to fill up their tanks. According to Crisil, CNG vehicle penetration in India rose from 5.6% in FY16 to 16% in FY25. While CNG infrastructure has also largely kept pace, cuts in gas allocation continue to add to congestion. That observation led Kaushik, Aalaap Nair, and Aryan Sisodia to found Nawgati in 2019 to give drivers greater visibility into fuel stations. However, the Noida-based startup began operations in 2022 after the disruption caused by the pandemic. The Nawgati Fuelling App has around 4 million users across India. It helps CNG users and intercity cab drivers locate stations and access real-time information such as waiting time and fuel availability. The company’s premise is simple: a fuel station should not be treated as merely a point on a map. “Maps, be it Google or Apple Maps, just provide point-of-interest information. They do not have the granularity of the real-time data that we have,” Kaushik notes. These reference points do not indicate whether CNG is actually available, whether the station is operating at low pressure, how long the queue is, or what amenities are present. For a driver navigating a city or planning an intercity trip, those details can determine whether a fuel stop takes five minutes or an hour. CNG is a Start Nawgati began with CNG because the category has a more visible congestion problem than conventional fuel stations. CNG vehicles often spend longer at outlets, with service times influenced by compressor capacity and pressure. But the company is positioning itself for a broader mobility transition. Its app is fuel-agnostic and is intended to eventually cover petrol, diesel, CNG, electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, and ethanol-based fuels. “We believe in a mixed mobility future,” the Co-founder and CEO notes. EV charging stations, for instance, have far longer service cycles than petrol or diesel outlets. Nawgati has already begun listing EV charging stations at fuel outlets and plans to add public charging locations as well. Enterprise Opportunity Nawgati’s larger commercial opportunity lies in Aaveg, its B2B software and hardware platform for oil and gas companies. Aaveg uses data from dispensers, compressors, cameras, and point-of-sale systems to help operators understand what is happening at an outlet in real time. The platform tracks operational metrics such as service time, waiting time, and vehicle categories. It can identify how long an autorickshaw takes to refuel compared with a car, estimate queue duration, and provide station-level operational insights to companies. The data can also be surfaced through the apps of gas distributors and city gas companies. For Nawgati, this is not just a customer-experience layer. It is also a compliance and revenue-control product. At many CNG outlets, fleet operators rely on manually generated receipts to reconcile fuel expenses. This creates room for billing discrepancies, where drivers may submit a higher amount than the actual value of gas dispensed. By connecting the dispenser and point-of-sale system, Aaveg automates the billing process and allows fleet operators to match payments to the actual quantity of fuel delivered. “So, there is zero possibility of bill fraud,” Kaushik says. “You actually pay for the amount of gas that is put into your tanks.” Tech Stack The startup has built much of its technology stack in-house. Its 40-member team includes around 30 people working in engineering and technology, with the company developing computer vision algorithms, station recommendation systems, and congestion-management tools internally. “We are an AI-native company. All the vision algorithms are built from scratch. All computer vision is done in-house by our ML team and the founders,” the co-founder adds. Nawgati also holds a patent related to congestion management at fuel stations. The company uses computer vision and operational data to understand vehicle movement, queue patterns, and service cycles at outlets. Business Model Nawgati earns primarily through its B2B subscription model, while it is also preparing to introduce a premium version of the Nawgati app for consumers. The startup raised a $2.5 million pre-Series A round last year and is currently in the middle of raising a $5.2 million Series A round. Its earlier backers include GAIL, Vyom Partners, Ajay Upadhyay, Metis Startup Club, and BITS Pilani’s incubator, Pilani Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Society. GAIL’s investment helped Nawgati with visibility in the CNG ecosystem and enabled it to work with city gas distribution companies. Kaushik shares that new CNG stations are sometimes listed on the Nawgati app before inauguration because operators see value in attracting users through the platform’s distribution. Unlike many consumer internet startups, Nawgati has not spent heavily on marketing. Its user base has grown largely through word of mouth among drivers. “We do not spend any money on marketing. It is all word of mouth.” The company has also received wider recognition, including a Forbes 30 Under 30 India mention in 2025 and the ET Startup Awards’ Best on Campus recognition. Its three co-founders were also named in the Avendus Wealth Hurun India U30 List 2026. Future Plans Nawgati’s next phase will depend on whether it can replicate its India playbook in other high-density mobility markets. The company expanded to the UAE in December last year, although geopolitical disruption has delayed timelines. It is now looking at the UAE and the wider Gulf Cooperation Council region, followed by Sri Lanka and parts of Southeast Asia. “High population, high waiting time, high congestion is what we are targeting in the next couple of years,” Kaushik affirms. India’s mobility transition will not be a straight switch from petrol to electric. CNG, conventional fuels, EV charging, ethanol blends, and emerging alternatives are likely to coexist for years. Nawgati is betting that as this mix becomes more complicated, fuel stations will need the kind of live operational intelligence that airports, warehouses, and ride-hailing fleets already rely on. For now, its ambition is to make a routine but often opaque part of India’s transport network more visible. The question is whether Nawgati can turn that visibility into the operating system for the country’s next generation of fuelling and charging infrastructure.