The electric ride-hailing startup from India, BluSmart raises $42 million as it ramps up its conflict with the two market leaders, Ola Cabs and Uber Technologies Inc.
BP Ventures, the investment arm of the powerful energy company BP Plc, which owns 20% of the stock, is one of the investors. According to co-founder Anmol Jaggi of Bloomberg News, BluSmart is currently valued at $250 million. The founders also took part in the most recent round of funding.
Jaggi and four other individuals founded the firm, which has its headquarters outside of New Delhi in Gurgaon, in December 2019 with the goal of providing a new, environmentally friendly ride-hailing option to the sizable Indian market. Over the course of its seed and Series A rounds, it raised $109 million.
But the COVID pandemic quickly put a stop to almost all of these services. Now that the market is rebounding, the firm has grown to include Delhi and Bangalore, two of India’s largest cities.
Jaggi sees a business opportunity in offering consumers electric vehicles entirely, despite the fact that competitors Ola and Uber have incorporated some electric vehicles into their sizable fleets. He believes that while offering passengers reliable and clean transportation, electric vehicles may increase driver and platform income.
Jaggi, 37, who serves as CEO, claimed that “Uber and Ola aren’t doing justice to their customers or drivers.” They don’t have unit economics; hence, such platforms are losing money.
He has begun to gain ground. According to the startup’s financing announcement on Thursday, revenue has tripled over the past three quarters.
Along with setting up electric charging stations with partners and financing drivers’ vehicles, BluSmart is also starting to manufacture electric vehicles with GenSol Engineering Ltd. as a partner.
In the coming year, it will more than double its fleet to 10,000 vehicles and further penetrate key cities using the most recent amount of funding.
In the past, BluSmart claimed to have raised $25 million through a mix of equity and loan financing. UCIC, Stride Ventures, Alteria Capital, BlackSoil, and BP Ventures provided the venture debt capital, while Green Frontier Capital and BP Ventures led the equity round.
One of the few mobility firms in India that operates in the ride-hailing industry is BluSmart. The company, which largely serves the Delhi-NCR region, intends to utilize the funds to more than triple—to more than 5,000—the fleet’s current number of electric vehicles. The business would also spend money on marketing and expanding the charging network in Delhi-NCR.
