New York-based Coast, which offers a simple and smart way for companies in the United States to manage fuel and fleet spending, announced it has raised $40 million in new Series B financing, led by ICONIQ Growth. The round included participation from existing investors Accel, Insight Partners, Vesey Ventures, and Avid Ventures, as well as new investors Thomvest.
Coast also announced a strategic investment from Synchrony, a leading consumer financial services company delivering one of the industry’s most complete digitally-enabled product suites across diverse sectors. The investment in Coast 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 has joined Coast’s board of directors as part of the new funding. The Series B brings Coast’s total equity financing to nearly $100M and comes months after it announced its previous round of $92 million in debt and equity.
For the nearly one million American businesses that collectively operate around 40 million vehicles in their commercial fleets – including field service businesses like HVAC, plumbing, landscaping, pest control, construction, government fleets and long-haul trucking – managing expenses in the field is a major challenge.
Over the decades, a handful of incumbent payment solutions have emerged to serve fleet-operating companies’ needs with fuel cards, to allow fleet managers to set field-specific controls, like restricting purchases to only fuel products, or tracking expenses on a per-vehicle basis. The fleet fuel payments on these specialized cards add up to a staggering $120 billion annually in the US.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with ICONIQ Growth, a legendary investor in fintech, and fleet and field services,” said Coast founder and CEO Daniel Simon. “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 reimagines fleet payments, enabled by mobile technology and state-of-the-art vehicle data and telematics. The company has seen its revenue grow over ten times in the last 18 months. Thousands of businesses are now using Coast, some with just a handful of fleet cards, and others with more than 1,000 cards. Surveyed customers saved an average of 9-10% on fuel bills and 16 hours of monthly administrative work when switching to Coast from another fuel card or payment method.
“Companies like Coast do not come along every day. We are incredibly impressed with Coast’s proven traction, leadership, and deep expertise in fintech,” said Yoonkee Sull. “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.”
This month, Coast launched a first-of-its-kind mobile app that eases the collection and verification of transaction data for fleet payments, such as receipts, memos, and job codes, which can be pushed to its customers’ accounting systems. It has also expanded the use of virtual cards, shared team budgets, and spend programs to simplify back-office purchasing for its trades and transportation business customers.
Building on their momentum, Coast has inked 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 new funding to accelerate its product and partnership development, including expanding to other financial services needs of its business customers, such as accounts payable automation and bill payments, and adding to its growing list of integration partners. The company will also continue to grow its team, including at its newly established second headquarters in Utah.
