BP Ventures invests in embedded payment

The British oil company British Petroleum (BP) has just invested, via its dedicated fund BP Ventures, in the German start-up Ryd, which specializes in payment for services related to the automobile. This is a way for BP to enter this highly competitive market.

THE FACTS

• Ryd offers an in-car payment service supported by two channels:
  • a mobile app,
  • the connected systems of the vehicles.

• It allows its users to pay for different services directly from their vehicle:
  • filling up with gas,
  • car wash,
  • recharging of electric vehicles.

• BP has just invested €10 million in the company to support the rollout of its mobile application and its compatibility with onboard systems in connected vehicles.

• The first BP stations should be able to accept Ryd payments by the end of the year.

CHALLENGES

• Enrich its offer: For BP, the acquisition of such a start-up represents an opportunity to integrate a new value-added service into its offer without having to go through the long and difficult stages of in-house development. Ryd will certainly be integrated into the BPme offer, which until now has been based on a "simple" mobile application.

• Growing a start-up with great potential: The opportunity is important for BP because Ryd, which has nearly 1.4 million customers, is currently accepted as a means of payment in some 3,000 gas stations across 5 countries including Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. The service is expected to cover Portugal and Spain in the near future and to be installed throughout Europe by 2024. BP's investment will help support this geographic expansion.

• Conquering a large market outright: In-car payment is a market of the future. Earlier this year, Gartner predicted that in-car payments could reach $1 billion worldwide by 2023, up from less than $100 million in 2020. KPMG estimates that the connected vehicle market as a whole should be worth some $19 billion worldwide by 2030.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• The fact that an oil company is choosing to enter the in-car payment battle is not new, as ExxonMobil had also embarked on this path in early 2020 as part of a partnership signed with Amazon and Fiserv. However, the solution had remained in the project stage for a long time and is still struggling to become more widespread.

• More than a concept, BP is now relying on Ryd to present a global connected services solution capable of competing with the various initiatives launched by so many different players (start-ups, payment giants and other car manufacturers).

• As an oil giant, BP still has the legitimacy to position itself as a reference in this high potential market. Especially since Ryd is not the first player in this ecosystem that manages to attract BP's funds.
• Last June, the oil company also invested in IoTecha, a company that recharges intelligent electric vehicles and automates payments.