Coast, a New York-based company offering a simple and smart way for companies in the US to manage fuel and fleet spending, today announced it has raised $40 million in new Series B financing, led by ICONIQ Growth. This funding round included participation from existing investors Accel, Insight Partners, Vesey Ventures, and Avid Ventures, and new investor Thomvest.
Coast also announced a strategic investment from Synchrony. This investment aligns with Synchrony’s presence in the aftermarket auto segment, where it partners with many top national tire, petrol, auto parts, and maintenance retailers like Discount Tire and Pep Boys.
ICONIQ Growth General Partner Yoonkee Sull joined Coast’s board of directors as part of the new funding. The Series B brings Coast’s total funding to nearly $100 million and comes months after it announced its previous round of $92 million in debt and equity.
There are nearly a million American businesses that operate about 40 million vehicles in their commercial fleets, including field service businesses such as HVAC, plumbing, landscaping, pest control, construction, government fleets, and long-haul trucking. Managing expenses in the field is a challenge for these businesses.
Several payment solutions have emerged to serve fleet-operating companies’ needs with fuel cards. These solutions enable fleet managers to set field-specific controls, like restricting purchases to only fuel products or tracking expenses on a per-vehicle basis. These fleet fuel payments on the specialized cards add up to about $120 billion annually in the US.
Coast addresses fleet payments, enabled by mobile technology and advanced vehicle data and telematics. The company has seen its revenue grow 10x in the last 18 months. Thousands of businesses are now utilizing Coast, some with just a handful of fleet cards and others with more than 1,000 cards. The surveyed customers saved an average of 9% to 10% on fuel bills and 16 hours of monthly administrative work when switching to Coast from another fuel card or payment method.
Coast launched a first-of-its-kind mobile app that eases the collection and verification of transaction data for fleet payments this month, such as receipts, memos, and job codes – which could be pushed to its customers’ accounting systems. And it has also expanded the use of virtual cards, shared team budgets, and spending programs to simplify back-office purchasing for its trades and transportation business customers.
Coast has also signed new partnerships with BuildOps, Sheetz, and 7-Eleven, adding to a growing list of partners across retailers, fuel brands, and technology providers.
Coast will use the funding to accelerate its product and partnership development, including expanding to other financial services needs of its business customers, like accounts payable automation and bill payments, and adding to its growing list of integration partners. And the company continue growing its team, including at its newly established second headquarters in Utah.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with ICONIQ Growth, a legendary investor in fintech, and fleet and field services. ICONIQ brings to bear not just their deep capital base but also their rich experience in Coast’s domains and expansive community, which can drive partnerships and accelerate expansion for Coast’s fleet product.”
– Coast founder and CEO Daniel Simon
“Companies like Coast do not come along every day. We are incredibly impressed with Coast’s proven traction, leadership, and deep expertise in fintech. We believe Daniel and team are using exceptional software to challenge incumbents in a massive market and making a difference in hundreds of thousands of American businesses. We are thrilled to partner with them on their mission to simplify the day-to-day management of thousands of fleets.”
– ICONIQ Growth General Partner Yoonkee Sull
