BluSmart Raises $50 Mn To Scale Its All-electric Ride-hailing Fleet The company's EV ride-sharing platform will use the funds to add 5,000 electric cars and scale up its EV
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Gurugram-based BluSmart, a fully-electric full-stack ride-hailing service and operator of electric vehicle (EV) superhubs, has closed on a Series A1 round raising $25 million. This is a follow-up to the Series A round that the company closed in September 2021, bringing the total of its Series A investment to $50.7 million.
This is one of the largest Series A funding in ride-hailing and smart mobility space globally, said a statement.
Of the $25 million raised in the Series A1 round, $15 million belong to equity capital and $10 million to a venture debt. The equity round was led by BP Ventures and Green Frontier Capital, with participation from existing investors. The venture debt funding comes from Stride Ventures, Alteria Capital, BlackSoil and UCIC.
BluSmart plans to use the funds to scale up its fleet to over 5,000 BluSmart EVs and to expand its network of EV superhubs across the Delhi national capital region. In addition to equity, the company also recently secured India's largest EV financing of $35.7 million backed by Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency.
"BluSmart has been able to scale 25 times since its launch backed by its founding tenets of innovative supply side differentiation (backed by institutional EV financing), customer-centric business model (zero ride denials and zero surge pricing) and full-stack EV ecosystem approach (fully-electric ride-hailing fleet backed by large scale EV infrastructure). BluSmart is creating inclusive and equitable economic opportunities for driver partners, who can drive and earn without the hassles of asset ownership," said Anmol Jaggi, co-founder and CEO.
Despite the many challenges involved, India appears to be on the cusp of an EV revolution. As per the Union ministry of road transport and highways' data, the total registered EV volumes of all the segments when combined stood at 313,000 units in 2021. Almost 5,000 four-wheeler EVs were sold in the previous financial year by the month of January, the highest in four years. Further, registered EV sales crossed the 100,000 mark in just two months in 2022. Additionally, a recent study by the NITI Aayog states that the country is targeting a 30 per cent share in the EV market by 2030.
As per its statement, BluSmart is committed to decarbonize mobility in mega cities of India, having recently added long-range EVs and started an all-electric inter-city service for its customers to travel from Delhi-NCR to Jaipur and Chandigarh. The company currently operates across Delhi-NCR and has completed 1.6 million zero-emission trips, covering 50 million clean kms.
