Last year, we quietly invested in the seed round of Booster Fuels, a then-stealth on-demand gas delivery service.  Today, we’re excited to officially announce our investment as they raise their Series A financing from Maveron, Madrona, and RRE, and other invests, as well as expand into Silicon Valley.

Much has been written about the Uberification of the economy over the past year. Last May, Boris said that we shouldn’t expect an Uber in every vertical. That’s because in order for the “Uber for X” model to truly work, three underlying factors need to hold true: the service needs to be commoditized, have a high purchase frequency, and be truly time sensitive. A lot of startups claiming to be the next Uber for X just don’t fit those criteria.

In fact, there are probably just a few categories where on-demand (as in “need it now”) is truly necessary – and two of those are transportation and food. That’s where Booster comes in. The service delivers gas to drivers, solving the many pain points of trips to the gas station: safety concerns, weather, timing, lines, germs, etc.

This is a huge market that’s up for grabs. A few stats for perspective:

• Passenger car fuel represents a half trillion dollar market in the US alone.
• As much as 11% of consumer spending is on gasoline each year.
• Despite increasing urbanization, 9 of 10 working Americans still commute to work by car.

As a result, Booster is not the only company to recognize the opportunity;  there are at least three other “Uber for gas” startups have launched.  The company currently operates in the SF Bay Area and the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex, servicing clients at suburban campuses of large cap corporations.  

So why did we invest? Ultimately, we love the end vision in terms of how energy moves globally. There are big implications for the decentralization of fuel and we’re excited to be working with CEO Frank Mycroft and the incredible Booster team on this mission.  

To learn more, visit their website and follow them on Twitter.