Piston, a payment platform designed for commercial fleets, has raised $15 million in Series A funding as the company looks to expand its cardless fuel payment network across the U.S., according to Piston.
FPV Ventures led the round, with existing investors Spark Capital and Pear VC also participating. The financing brings Piston's total funding to $22.5 million.
The company said its payment volume increased eightfold over the past year, while its merchant network grew 40 times. Piston now operates at more than 2,000 fuel stations across 48 states and said its point-of-sale integrations are certified and live on systems representing more than 95% of U.S. merchant fuel sites.
Piston's technology is aimed at replacing physical fuel cards with a system that authorizes transactions for individual drivers and vehicles at the point of sale. The company says the approach is intended to give fleets more immediate visibility into fuel spending while reducing the fraud and administrative work associated with physical cards.
"Commercial fuel still runs on payment technology built for another era," said Vikram Sekhon, Piston's co-founder and CEO. "Fleet fuel fraud is a physical card problem, disguised as a detection issue."
The company is also adding AI tools to the platform as it looks to give fleets more control over fuel transactions and the data generated by them, according to Piston.
The first product, called Piston Guard, evaluates each transaction for anomalies and can flag or block suspected fraudulent spending before the transaction is completed, according to the company. A second product, the Piston Analytics Agent, is designed to help fleet operators analyze their spending data and identify patterns without having to manually sort through the information.
The AI products build on Piston's focus on real-time transaction controls, giving fleets tools to identify potentially fraudulent purchases as well as analyze spending after transactions occur.
Piston was founded by Sekhon and co-founder Shivam Shah, who previously operated trucking fleets. Sekhon previously told FreightWaves that he operated between 120 and 250 trucks and that fuel was his fleet's second-largest expense after payroll. He said the fleet had dealt with fraud, unpredictable fees and the administrative work involved in reconciling fuel transactions.
That experience helped shape Piston's approach to fuel payments. In 2025, the company said drivers used a smartphone and a dynamic QR code to authorize fuel purchases, with transactions tied to details including the vehicle, time, location and fuel type.
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