Indian EV ride-hailing and charging company BluSmart has raised $25 million in a Series A funding round led by bp ventures, which invested $13 million. Other investors included Mayfield India Fund, 9Unicorns and Survam Partners. Sophia Nadur, Managing Partner at bp ventures, will join BluSmart’s board.
BluSmart will use the new capital to expand its fleet of EVs and charging stations from its home city of Delhi to five additional Indian cities over the next two years.
BluSmart aims to deliver “safer, cleaner and more sustainable mobility.” It does not use surge pricing, and customers can view vehicle cleaning schedules and driver vaccination status via the BluSmart app. The company leases vehicles to drivers, and oversees all vehicle maintenance.
According to a 2020 report, BluSmart operates a fleet of 300 EVs and 194 charging stations.
“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,” said Richard Bartlett, SVP Future Mobility & Solutions at bp.
“We believe that electric mobility has huge growth potential, driven in part by the increasingly favorable economics behind electric vehicles,” said Anmol Singh Jaggi, Co-founder of BluSmart. “This latest funding infusion will help us grow as we work with bp to help transform India’s high polluting cities and redefine ride-hailing with electric vehicles.”
Source: BluSmart