EV ride-hailing startup BluSmart raises $25M in funding led by BP Ventures

Gurugram-based EV ride-hailing startup BluSmart today said it has raised $25 million in a Series A funding round led by BP Ventures. The round also saw participation from Mayfield India Fund, 9Unicorns, Survam Partners, and other existing investors. 

Earlier this month, BluSmart had partnered with BP to build a network of commercial large-scale EV charging stations. According to BP, this is its first direct investment in India and tenth in the mobility space.

Founded in 2019 by Anmol Jaggi and Punit K Goyal, BluSmart provides integrated electric vehicle ride-hailing and charging network services, aiming to deliver safer, cleaner, and more sustainable mobility.

With this round of funding, BluSmart plans to expand its fleet of electric vehicles and charging stations from Delhi to five additional Indian cities in the next two years. On the other side, the investment will help BP move towards becoming a leader in India’s mobility market, and to provide integrated energy and mobility solutions to help customers reduce their emissions across the world, the statement said.

“We believe that electric mobility has huge growth potential, driven in part by the increasingly favourable economics behind electric vehicles," Anmol Singh Jaggi, co-founder of BluSmart, said. "With that in mind we want to redefine ride-hailing with electric vehicles, and our consumer focus has helped us to already establish a strong brand presence in our core market; to date, our vehicles have traveled over 21 million kilometers, he adds.

Richard Bartlett, SVP future mobility & solutions, said: “The electric mobility revolution will have a huge impact in reducing vehicle emissions in cities, which in India are growing quickly. BluSmart’s business model solves a number of key barriers to urban EV ride-hailing take-up, from the cost for drivers to the quality of customer experience."

"Our partnership is underpinned by shared values; caring for customers, colleagues, and the environment, and with safety at the core of everything we do. We are excited to have made our first direct investment in India, to grow alongside the BluSmart business," he adds.

Following the deal, Sophia Nadur, Managing Partner at BP Ventures, will be joining BluSmart’s board. BP Ventures so far has invested almost $800 million in more than 60 companies across seven geographies. 

According to BP's statement, India is now the third-largest startup market globally and its GDP is projected to be the world’s third-largest by 2030. Yet with 35 of the top 50 most polluted cities globally, there’s a huge need for low carbon technologies to help make that growth compatible with its climate ambitions.

Urbanization is also increasing rapidly, with the UN projecting that India’s urban population size will nearly double from 2018 to 2050, potentially creating further congestion and environmental challenges that electric ride-hailing can help play a part in improving. 

The industry is forecast to grow significantly, with mobility as a service projected to make up 15% of the 1.1 trillion kilometres to be traveled by passenger vehicles in India by 2030, compared to 5% of the 477 billion kilometres traveled today.

With the largest EV charging infrastructure in India and a growing fleet of electric vehicles, BluSmart aims to transform ride-hailing in the country. The business is growing quickly in Delhi NCR, which represents 20% of India’s mobility market, which BluSmart estimate has already saved over approximately 1,500 tonnes of CO₂, with more than 650,000 passenger trips completed to date. 

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