From India to the UAE: Nawgati eyes global mobility infrastructure ambitions

Nawgati has transformed into a mobility infrastructure company that is revolutionizing fuel station operations, from assisting CNG users with queues to creating an AI platform for retailers. The startup, established by Vaibhav Kaushik due to a recurring problem in India's fuel retail sector, now has over 30 lakh users, partners with major oil marketing firms, and is entering international markets after securing $2.5 million in Pre-Series A funding. In this interaction with The Economic Times Digital, Kaushik, the co-founder and CEO of the company, discusses the journey, its evolving business model, AI-led innovation, global ambitions, and the future of connected mobility infrastructure. Edited excerpts.

The Economic Times (ET): Nawgati began by solving a simple but persistent problem at CNG stations. Looking back, what convinced you that this pain point could be built into a scalable business rather than just another utility app?
Vaibhav Kaushik (VK): The idea came from a real, lived observation, not a market study. During my 2019 internship in Noida, I relied heavily on CNG-powered cab rides, and drivers kept raising the same complaint: out of ten hours on the road, they lost roughly an hour daily waiting in fuel queues, costing them close to 10% of their daily earnings. I assumed this was a solved problem already, and it seemed too basic for nobody to have addressed it, but to my surprise, nobody had. What convinced me it was a business, not just a utility, was realizing the problem wasn't CNG-specific or city-specific; it was structural to how India's fuel retail data flows. That insight shaped Nawgati into a fuel-agnostic queue management platform from the outset, giving us a foundation to expand across fuel types and eventually into a broader data layer.


ET: Nawgati has evolved from a CNG queue management platform into an AI-first, fuel-agnostic ecosystem. How has your business model changed over the years, and what are your key revenue streams today?
VK: Nawgati started by solving a narrow, painful problem, which was CNG queues, but we always built the underlying architecture to be fuel-agnostic. As we scaled, our focus shifted from a single consumer utility to a two-sided intelligence layer: the Nawgati Fuelling App for consumers, offering real-time queue lengths, fuel availability, and pricing. The other was Aaveg, our enterprise platform for fuel retailers. Aaveg integrates with existing CCTV, dispensers, and vehicle-tracking systems to give station owners real-time observability and predictive insights. This shift from a single-fuel consumer app to a full-stack B2B2C data platform spanning consumer engagement and enterprise operations is what transformed us into an ecosystem rather than a utility.

ET: Your enterprise platform, Aaveg, works with oil marketing companies and fuel retailers. How do you monetise these partnerships, and what tangible benefits have clients reported in terms of operational efficiency, customer throughput, or cost savings?
VK: Aaveg is our B2B Fuel Retail Management System, integrating seamlessly with existing CCTV, dispenser, compressor, storage, and vehicle-tracking infrastructure at stations, so operators get real-time observability without additional hardware investment. This keeps our deployment low-cost and fast to scale. For clients, the tangible impact has been measurable- 10-15% reduction in on-ground congestion at high-traffic locations, over 80% reduction in CNG dryouts, improved vehicle servicing throughput during peak hours, and better visibility for lower-footfall stations. Aaveg also replaces manual monitoring with automated analytics and reporting, improving demand forecasting and manpower allocation. Essentially, we help operators move from reactive, manual station management to proactive, data-driven decision-making.

ET: Nawgati had secured funding from investors including GAIL, MapmyIndia, All In Capital, and recently raised a $2.5 million Pre-Series A round. How are you deploying this capital, and when do you expect the company to achieve profitability?
VK: Our funding has been layered deliberately. GAIL invested under its PANKH initiative to help digitise the fueling journey for operators, companies, and end-users, while All In Capital, MapmyIndia and HNIs backed our seed round for our initial rollouts in metro cities. Our $2.5 million Pre-Series A, led by Ajay Upadhyaya with participation from the Deepak Bhagnani Family Office, MeitY Startup Hub, and Aamara Capital, was focused on scaling our fleet management solutions beyond Mahanagar Gas to more fuel providers, alongside global expansion. We are now in advanced talks for a $5.2 million Series A at a valuation exceeding $70 million, which reflects our growth trajectory. We would be profitable from FY27; the current phase is about deepening enterprise penetration and proving the model across new geographies alongside optimising for margin.

ET: India's fuel retail landscape is undergoing rapid transformation with EV charging, alternative fuels, and digital payments gaining traction. How do you see Nawgati positioning itself as mobility infrastructure evolves beyond conventional fuels?
VK: Our long-term vision is to turn every fuel station into a connected mobility hub, not just a fuel dispensing point, but a source of real-time intelligence. As India transitions toward EVs and multi-energy models, we're preparing our platform to support EV charging stations and multi-energy outlets alongside conventional fuels, ensuring we stay relevant regardless of which energy sources dominate. We're also deepening fleet partnerships to help logistics companies reduce idle time and optimise routes, and using predictive analytics to forecast congestion and improve staffing. The goal is a unified digital backbone connecting retailers, fleets, and consumers as mobility infrastructure modernises.

ET: The company has crossed 30 lakh organic users and is targeting 20,000 outlets. What has been your customer acquisition strategy so far, and how do you plan to maintain growth while keeping acquisition costs under control?
VK: Our approach has centered on proving operational value directly to station partners, letting demonstrated results reduce congestion, improve throughput, ease compliance, build trust, and drive expansion through referrals within the industry. Growth on the consumer side has followed the same principle: usage builds naturally once people experience the time and cost savings firsthand, which keeps our acquisition efficient without heavy reliance on outbound sales. From now on, we are focused on deepening penetration with existing station and fleet partners before layering on new markets, since expanding wallet share with proven customers is more cost-effective than constantly chasing new ones. This retention-first approach keeps our acquisition costs predictable as we scale.

ET: You have announced plans to expand into the UAE through your partnership with Seed Group. Why did you choose the Middle East as Nawgati's first international market, and what opportunities do you see outside India over the next five years?
VK: We are expanding internationally through strategic partnerships in the UAE, with Seed Group, and in Sri Lanka, both markets that mirror the fuel retail inefficiencies we've already solved in India, giving us a natural entry point without needing to rebuild our core model. This international move signals that the problems we address, congestion, poor visibility, and manual station operations, aren't unique to India. Our low-cost, hardware-light deployment approach, which leverages existing CCTV and station infrastructure rather than requiring new capex, makes it easier to replicate our model in new geographies while validating Nawgati's relevance as a global mobility infrastructure layer.

ET: Nawgati has been built around the unique dynamics of India's fuel retail ecosystem. Is your technology and business model inherently India-specific, or do you see it as a globally scalable platform? Which international markets present the biggest opportunity, and what adaptations would be needed to replicate your success overseas?
VK: While Nawgati was built around the dynamics of India's fuel retail ecosystem, our core architecture is designed to be scalable beyond it. Because we integrate with infrastructure operators who already have CCTV, dispensers, and compressors rather than requiring specific hardware, our deployment model is inherently low-cost and adaptable to new markets. Our expansion into the UAE (via Seed Group) and Sri Lanka reflects this: both are early proof points that our real-time data and observability layer can be replicated internationally. The core adaptation required is aligning with local fuel retail structures and partner networks, rather than re-engineering the underlying technology.

ET: Artificial intelligence is becoming central to infrastructure management. How is Nawgati leveraging AI beyond queue prediction, and what new products or capabilities are you building that could create additional revenue opportunities?
VK: AI is central to how we build, not just a feature we add on. Beyond queue prediction, we use computer vision and data analytics through Aaveg to give station owners real-time observability into compliance, vehicle movement, and operational inefficiencies as they happen, not after the fact. We're also building predictive analytics capabilities to forecast congestion and improve staffing efficiency, and developing one of India's largest real-time mobility datasets to support smarter infrastructure planning. Looking ahead, this data layer itself becomes a growing revenue opportunity, enabling more sophisticated forecasting, benchmarking, and decision-support products for retailers and fleet operators alike.