With the escalation of gasoline prices, there has been a notable shift in the use of automobiles powered by compressed natural gas, which has emerged as a cheaper alternative fuel. The demand for CNG-based vehicles in India has been rising significantly, as seen by data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, which shows that CNG vehicle sales in India increased by 51.5 percent in the fiscal year 2020–21 compared to the prior year. CNG has become increasingly popular, with more than three million CNG-powered vehicles on Indian roads. However, obtaining information about nearby CNG stations has been a challenge for drivers.

CNG Eco Connect is a mobile app designed with the aim of being a one-stop solution for all CNG needs. Established in 2017 in Gujarat, the app's prime feature is a map-based search that helps users find CNG stations across India. "We have geotagged nearly 4200 CNG stations and provide entire details of every station, including location, company, station type (online, offline, or daughter booster), the latest price, average filling time, and other amenities”, speaks Bhavya Latha Bandaru, Founder, CNG Eco Connect. The app also shows information about CNG conversion kits and CNG hydro testing centers across various cities. These features helped CNG Eco Connect evolve as an app, the first of its kind in this segment, with more than six lakh registered users, and that too without a single promotional ad.

For any app to be successful in the market, reviews play the most prominent role, reviews can influence user choices, boosting the company's reputation. Understanding what the customers need with their reviews can help the business grow in the right direction. "CNG Eco Connect was built keeping customer needs in mind. We stay very active on customer support/feedback, which helps us understand what features our users find useful and what other features they would like to recommend to us", speaks Bhavya. During the initial stage, the company faced the challenge of obtaining authenticated information about CNG stations from CGD companies. "To address this issue, we rolled it out as a community-driven app where the app users can themselves add details about missing CNG stations after verification. Later, we collaborated with the CNG companies to get more authenticated information about existing or upcoming CNG stations", speaks Bhavya.

CNG Eco Connect evolved over the years organically & built a loyal customer base who helped to spread the word

To keep pace with the evolving market, the firm regularly rolls out updates that include highly recommended features from users.

The app’s potential users are usually the common public or the users from the automobile industry. “The diversification in the user’s background shows that the app is catering to the daily needs of CNG users across various industries", adds Bhavya.

The Founder Bhavya Latha Bandaru is a visionary entrepreneur with a passion for innovation and a track record of success. With nearly 12+ years of software development and work experience in a couple of startups, she has experience across a wide range of technologies that helped to build, design and develop the entire application stack.

In the coming years, for the expansion of the app, the firm has collaborated with Nawgati to increase its reach, as Nawgati provides intelligent congestion and compliance management for fuel stations. The company Nawgati acquired CNG Eco Connect recently, and it is to be believed that CNG Eco Connect will scale to new heights under the leadership and will serve the users by providing more useful features.

As a future roadmap, the founder is focusing on building unique & innovative solutions in femtech and cleantech business verticals.