Who are Aditi Bhosale, Chetan Walunj, Ratan Tata-backed founders whose earnings are over Rs 180 crore?

The people of India know many stories of business tycoon Ratan Tata's humble demeanor and generosity. The Tata Group's chairman emeritus is known for his grand gestures. The story of Aditi Bhosale Walunj and Chetan Walunj, however, tops it all. The couple now runs a fuel distribution company -- Repos. However, they wanted mentorship from their idol Rata Tata when they were struggling to make their venture take off the ground. They were determined -- they wanted to meet Ratan Tata come what may. Eventually, they met Tata, the spearhead of one of the largest conglomerates in the world. However, no good comes without hard work. The couple had to run pillar to post to meet the icon who keeps busy even in the ninth decade of his life. Here's the story of Bhosale's grit and determination, and Ratan Tata's magnanimity and will to groom the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Chetan and Aditi Bhosale Walunj run a startup called Repos Energy. Their motto in life is to reduce the carbon footprints, even in the conventional fuel business. The company wants to curate fuels of all kinds under one umbrella and transform the energy distribution in the company using technology. They also want to make a cost-efficient model of their business. They started as a project backed by Tata, in 2017. However, that project came after massive efforts to meet the iconic businessman.

In a Linkedin post, Bhosale said that Tata is not your regular neighbour whom you could meet easily. He was the Tata chairman then. The couple has no formal education in business schools. So they had to hustle and learn the job.

They made a 3D presentation of their dream and set out to meet Tata, the legendary business leader. They first sent handwritten letters to Tata. They even approached people on whom Tata relies for day-to-day activities. They went to meet at Ratan Tata's house in Mumbai and waited for 12 hours. Ratan Tata, however, remained busy with his packed schedule. Thinking that it was not their day, the couple returned to their hotel room and retired.

Within an hour, they received a phone call. "Hi, can I speak to Aditi," said a gentle voice. "This is Ratan Tata, got your letter... Can we meet?". She initially couldn't believe that a person of Ratan Tata's stature could actually call her directly.

They soon met and made presentations to Tata. Impressed, Ratan Tata invested in the company twice. Repos is now present in 188 cities across India. Now they have over a thousand business partners. In May 2022, the company got a funding of Rs 56 crore from the Tata Group.

"Founder at Repos || E-commerce || EV|| Hydrogen || Clean Energy || Fintech || IOT ||Waste to Power || Energy Distribution || Fuel/Energy at doorstep|| Carbon Neutral || Circular economy," Aditi writes on her LinkedIn account.

The company has now grown multi-fold. This year, the company is expected to generate a revenue of Rs 185 crore. 

"We have been fortunate enough to have Mr Ratan Tata as our initial investor. Last fiscal year we did business of Rs 65 crore. Our business has been growing multifold. This fiscal we expect our top line to be around Rs 185 crore," she was quoted by PTI as saying.

She said her company works like ATMs for mobile fuel stations. Basically, it helps enterprises to get fuel at their doorstep. It also helps check fuel theft and monitor fuel consumption. They have deployed 2,000 mobile fuel stations. 

The company is planning to now raise Rs 300 crore. 

Basically, they provide last mile connectivity to fuel delivery. They use technology to do this efficiently.

The Repos Mobile Petrol Pump are strapped on to vehicles. They distribute diesel via these trucks. They have created an e-commerce platform where diesel consumers and delivery partners can connect directly and make safe and secure transactions. 

The company's long term vision is to delve into LPG, CNG, Hydrogen fuel and electric vehicle companies.