Key points:

- Celero buys near minority stake of First Nations-owned Padthaway Resources.

- The deal locks in fuel for 6GW of batteries and 2GW of data centres across four states.

- A diesel and low carbon fuel supplier bets on the renewables and AI boom.

A First Nations-owned fuel and logistics business has sold a minority stake of its shares to renewable energy investor Celero Infrastructure in a deal its founder says keeps Indigenous owners firmly in control of a company built for Australia's energy transition. The deal values the company at more than $4.5 million within its first year of operations.

Co-owners Jacob Gabriel and his uncle, company chair Sean Armistead, signed the share sale on Thursday. The pair retain majority control of Padthaway Resources Corporation.

"We never wanted to be in a situation where the non-Indigenous party would own more than an individual (Indigenous) owner," Mr Gabriel said.

Padthaway grew out of First Transport, a business Mr Gabriel founded with a single truck, and which he describes as probably Australia's largest Aboriginal transport business.

Originally selling fuel to infrastructure clients as First Transport Fuel, it rebranded as Padthaway Resources to move beyond fuel into bulk tanks, on-site refuelling and broader energy solutions. The company now services tier one and tier two clients across Victoria and the eastern seaboard.

The core business is diesel, even as the deal trades on a transition designed to move the country off fossil fuels over time.

Mr Gabriel does not dodge the contradiction.

"In order to build every single renewable project today, that requires fossil fuels, and so it's an interesting dichotomy," he said.

His answer is to broaden the fuel mix. Padthaway now offers a full biofuel range and HVO, hydrotreated vegetable oil, which Mr Gabriel says is "almost no emission, completely interchangeable with diesel".

On a wind farm build, he said, "our job is to mitigate as much of those emissions as we can with the use of biofuels".

Celero's funding injection will go three ways. The first is expanding that low carbon range.

"One of the biggest barriers for us is being able to pre-purchase and import a large number of this biofuel and HVO from overseas," Mr Gabriel said. "That requires an enormous cash investment prior to even selling it."

The second is supporting Aboriginal organisations the company has partnered with, including Ganbina, and the third is pushing the business into Western Australia and the Northern Territory beyond its current eastern seaboard and South Australian base.

Mr Gabriel sees a bigger opening for First Nations business as the build accelerates. EY has found 43 per cent of Australia's future clean energy infrastructure will sit on some form of Aboriginal land, yet few operational projects today include First Nations equity.

"When you're building energy infrastructure that seeks to benefit the whole economy, there's a broader conversation around how those benefits can support the local communities on the lands that they've had to often give up or sacrifice," Mr Gabriel said.

Mr Gabriel wants Traditional Owner groups in the deal "not just symbolically, you know, get their blessing for use of land, but economically".

Padthaway is in early talks with Traditional Owner groups along the Western Renewable Link in Victoria, about 175 kilometres of transmission crossing seven or eight groups, where it is tendering to supply fuel and biofuels.

The road there was not smooth.

"I had a challenging upbringing, like many people, in a lower socioeconomic household," Mr Gabriel said. "As soon as I finished school, I went to work instead of [doing] a bachelor, because I needed to support mum paying rent."

Raised in Frankston, he later moved to Melbourne with Mr Armistead, who became the steadying influence in his life. Mr Armistead's idea started the business two years ago, and given his role as Deputy Chief Executive of Indigenous Business Australia, he stays out of operations while Mr Gabriel runs it.

The mentoring goes back much further.

"I never knew what Sean did for a job when I was younger, but I knew he wore a suit and tie, and so I wanted to wear a suit and tie," Mr Gabriel said.

It set him on a path through Crown, PwC Indigenous Consulting, NSW Treasury and McKinsey before he built his own companies.

"Sean taught me how to tie my first tie," he said. "If it wasn't for Sean, I'd be in a very different spot."

At 29 and turning 30 in July, Mr Gabriel wants Padthaway to become the country's go-to supplier for on-site and bulk refuelling in renewables, alongside plans to manufacture biofuel locally, secure land for fuel storage and move into energy generation.

The ambition, though, is to compete on merit.

"I want people to use us not just because we're an Aboriginal business," he said, "but because we're a great competitive business, and we happen to be Aboriginal owned".