Startups grow with rising fuel prices

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The rise in fuel prices affects inflation, prompted protests from truck drivers and was the cause of an abrupt change in the presidency of Petrobras. But for Brazilian startups that work in the area, the readjustments have translated into more customers and high growth rates.

The latest Petrobras readjustment, on October 26, caused the average price of gasoline to rise by 3.1%, reaching an average of R$ 6.562 per liter, according to the ANP (National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels). In the same week, the price of diesel rose 4.5% at stations, reaching R$ 5.211 per liter, on average. These are unprecedented values ​​in Brazil.

Operating with few external competitors due to the specifics of the Brazilian market, startups in the sector optimize processes at distributors, transporters and fuel stations with technologies ranging from equipment to monitor the pump flow to robots on the Telegram that indicate how to buy the product.

“We don’t feel the pandemic”, says Filipe Lucatelli Borges, one of the partners of CTA Smart, a company that works with supply control. “Every crisis we’ve been through since the company’s foundation, in 2011, has strengthened us.”

The startup’s main customers are small and medium-sized cargo and passenger carriers. Usually, these companies have an internal post in their units to serve their own fleet.

Analogously organizing the supply logistics of these stations can result in losses. To solve this problem, the startup installs equipment at the pumps, connected to the internet, which records the receipt of fuel and does all the management in an automated way.

With the company’s authorization, it is possible to know who is the driver at the time, the name of the gas station attendant who made the refueling, the vehicle’s mileage, among other data.

Despite having aimed at the visibility of the tanks, the startup started to manage the supply of these companies through software. Today, CTA Smart has more than 1,600 active equipment throughout Brazil, in addition to being in the United States through Link2Pump, providing the same service. In early October, the brand received an investment of R$5.5 million.

Combudata co-founder Daniel Colella agrees that this is a unique time for fuel-related businesses. “Everything is converging, I would say it’s the perfect storm,” he says.

Its startup, which has clients across the country, operates on two fronts: the first is a management and control platform that can serve any entity that buys fuel from a distributor. Customers upload their invoices and, based on them, Combudata assesses whether the purchases are being a good or bad deal.

Ultimately, the company wants to give buyers bargaining power through greater access to information. If the trend is for fuel to rise, for example, the platform tells companies to fill their tanks. If there is a downward trend, he suggests not to buy it, because the product will be cheaper a few weeks later.

“It’s an inventory management”, summarizes Colella.

The second front is the Combumarket, a supplier marketplace for its customers. “This buyer has a kind of marketing myopia. He doesn’t know any distributor other than the big ones, so he’s held hostage by them for lack of information”, says the businessman.

As it is a more recent initiative, Combumarket is only in the southern region and in the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais.

Also working with carriers, Gasola was born in 2020 to compete with the fuel card or fleet card, generally used by carrier employees to supply vehicles.

“The big problem is that these cards charge a very high fee for the service station”, says Ricardo Monosowski Lerner, founder of the startup, also recalling that normally the transfer takes place only 30 days after filling – which leads many service stations to charge different amounts for payments with these cards.

“Our business is to connect carriers and service stations directly through a digital platform,” explains Lerner.

Fuel payment is made through the Gasola app, and the deposit for the gas station takes place immediately, through a digital current account. The service is only billed to the carrier.

In October, the startup moved BRL 18 million through the platform. “From the clients who do the pilot with us, 97% this year have hired us after 30 days. It is more expensive not to hire than to hire,” he says.

The startup Aprix, another initiative in the sector, works directly with gas stations. Through a software, where all invoices are placed, the company captures the price sensitivity of each service station for each fuel per day of the week.

“With this, we were able to foresee all possible scenarios and provide guidance. ‘Go this way, it’s how you’ll achieve your goals'”, says Guilherme Baggio Zuanazzi, founder of the startup. “We optimize the sale price for the final consumer.”

His business, he explains, depends on Petrobras’ international price parity policy. Through it, the state-owned company prices the fuel according to prices outside Brazil, which makes the values ​​more volatile and less predictable.

“Before, if it was reported that Petrobras was going to raise R$ 0.20, for example, the next day the owner of the station already knew what he had to do”, says Zuanazzi. “With these frequent changes and finer adjustments, this dealer has a hard time deciding what to do. He can expect the competition to go up to go up too, but what if the competition doesn’t?”

Every day, customers receive a notification via the Telegram application with the result of the data analysis, indicating the best pricing.

The startup is in more than 15 Brazilian states, in addition to serving a network in Peru that also uses Aprix software.

For Zuanazzi, his biggest competitor is the “conservative mentality of the segment”.

“The service station is usually operated by an older person, and there are many companies in the interior of Brazil, where these technologies end up arriving later. In addition, this sector is not so sexy for young people. Those who are new want to work with electric car”, says the entrepreneur.

“We know that the fuel sector has its days limited due to the transition to electric cars. It will happen, we just don’t know when,” he says. “That’s why we are positioned as a data company, which brings efficiency to processes.”

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