Coast, a New York-based payments and finance startup, which helps businesses with fleet management, announced raising a $6 million seed round led by Better Tomorrow Ventures, according to TechCrunch.
The seed round also include participation by Avid Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, BoxGroup, Colle, Foundation Capital, Greycroft, SciFi VC and more than a dozen angels. Sheel Mohnot of Better Tomorrow Ventures joined Coast’s board as a result of the financing.
Coast’s goal is to provide fleet business owners with financial technology and payment tools that are tailored to fleets, such as tracking vehicle-related expenses, selectively allowing credit card payments on gas, and roadside assistance.
The company is set to launch their first product, a commercial fuel charge card, later this year. The Visa cards can be driver-specific or shared and will process rules set in place by business owners to ensure the correct purchases are being made in line with company policies.
“Fleet owners need transactions to be authorized, for instance, for buying gas for the company van, not the personal car, and for filling up at the pump, not making other purchases in the gas station convenience store,” co-founder Daniel Simon said.
Simon previously founded and sold Bread, a consumer finance and payment startup, for over $500 million last year. He founded Coast alongside former Lyft executive Andrew Woolf this year, citing a mission to become “the financial platform for the future of transportation.”
Coast also plans to add categories of fleet business spending and increase integrations with the goal of becoming a broader platform for fleet-focused industries. Additional services and tools they plan to add include telematic capabilities that allow vehicle status and location information, as well as integrations into major accounting platforms.
“They need their employee and vehicle payments integrated into the rest of their operations, and they need fair and transparent financial products that are simple to understand,” Simon said.