BP Ventures, the investment arm of oil and gas giant BP has announced a 10million ($11.9 millions) investment in Ryd. Ryd is a German provider of digital payments in cars. According to a statement, the new funds will allow Ryd to expand its service into international markets as well as improve its offerings.
Ryds allows users to combine online payments for services such as fuel purchases and EV charging. Ryds can be integrated with smart car systems or the startups app. BP already offers digital payment options for the UK and Netherlands via its BPme app. The legacy company plans to expand its digital offerings through its partnership with Ryd as a result of Ryd's investment. Ryd will learn from startups and offer flexible and secure digital payment options. Ryd will have the opportunity to scale its technology to BP customers throughout Europe.
Alex Jensen (bps senior vice president mobility, convenience, Europe, and Southern Africa), stated that in-car digital payments are an essential part of the seamless, convenient experience customers expect at our retail locations. Ryds technology is able to deliver this, and a growing number of other services.
This isn't the first investment BP has made in smart vehicles, and it is likely to not be the last. The firm also invested $7million in IoTecha in June. This smart EV charging company connects chargers to the electricity grid via IoT and automates charging payment. These strategic investments add to BP Ventures' ecosystem, which is designed to help BP become an integrated energy company and reduce its carbon footprint.
According to Ryd, Ryd has been accepted at more than 3,000 service stations in seven countries. Ryd has over 1.4 million customers directly and access to more than 100 million customers through partnerships with Mastercard, several car manufacturers, and other companies. The connected car data market is expected to grow to $19 billion by 2030 and the non-fuel retail market to reach $285billion globally by the same year. This startup is now working on its strategy to integrate its technology into more vehicles.
Ryd aims to make it easy and safe for drivers to interact with their cars. This is Oliver Goetz, Ryd's founder and chairman. BP is the final piece of our puzzle. It completes our ecosystem by providing strong strategic partners in every area of our business: finance, auto and energy. BP anticipates that tens to millions of car drivers will switch to digital direct payment systems. These systems are connected to vehicle data as well as to payment systems at gas stations. This new method of payment is faster, simpler and more convenient. Ryd is leading this movement in Europe.
According to Ryds CEO Sandra Dax, Ryds expects to be operational at the first BP filling stations by the fourth quarter 2021.
