One day in 2017, Pune was struck with a power cut, leaving the entire area without electricity for several hours.

Aditi Bhonsale and Chetan Walunj were busy coordinating between tankers arriving at their family petrol pump in Chakan to refuel.

The two were aware of the ever-increasing demand for fuel, as well as the issue of land unavailability.

The couple notes that at present, there are around 55,000 fuel stations in India, which is insufficient to meet industry energy demands.

“We wanted to come up with a solution wherein energy distribution would be simplified and fuel could be delivered to doorsteps,” says Aditi.

With this thought in mind, Aditi and Chetan planned the launch of their startup Repos Energy in 2017.

This venture, they hoped, would bring all the fuels under one roof, and make them available with just a click on the phone.

In 2019, after talks with the Ministry of Petroleum and Commerce, a successful pilot project was launched, and they received their final approvals.

A trip to Mumbai and a play of fate led the business tycoon Ratan Tata to back the couple’s idea and even fund it!

Speaking about the doorstep diesel distribution process, Aditi says it establishes a connect between diesel sellers and buyers.

Aditi adds that till today, he continues to be the “backbone of Repos, as it is his value system that helped build the venture”.

On the seller’s side, Repos customers are those who already have petrol pumps, as they did not want to disrupt the existing infrastructure.

“We provide them with the mobile petrol pump and then they seek permission from their energy distributor such as Reliance, etc, and take doorstep diesel delivery permission.”

“We then put them in touch with customers who are looking for doorstep delivery of diesel,” she says.

The couple adds that their venture is helping create fuel entrepreneurs. These are essentially those who do not own a petrol pump but are looking to get into the fuel distribution business.

Till date, they have managed to create around 600 fuel startups.

Repos Energy is present in 300 cities and has managed to create over 2,000 mobile petrol pumps, along with also launching mobile EV charging stations.