New Delhi based BluSmart raises $50 mn to scale up its EV car fleet

Electric ride-hailing platform BluSmart has raised $50 million in a mix of equity and venture debt funding as the New Delhi-based company is looking to add 5,000 electric cars to its ride-hailing platform and scale up its electric vehicle (EV) hubs.

BluSmart, which claims to be India's largest operator of EV hubs, said it extended its Series A round, which started in September 2021, as Series A1 with total commitments of $50.7 million, the company said in a statement on May 24. In its Series A1 round, the company raised $25 million comprising of $15 million in equity funding and $10 million as venture debt.

The equity funding was led by BP Ventures and Green Frontier Capital with participation from existing investors. The company had previously raised funds from venture capital firms like Inflection Point Ventures, Mumbai Angels Network, Venture Catalysts, JITO Foundation,and Hero MotoCorp among others. The venture debt funding, meanwhile, came from Stride Ventures, Alteria Capital, BlackSoil and UCIC, BluSmart said.

BluSmart also recently secured India's largest EV financing of $35.7 million backed by IREDA (India Renewable Energy Dev Agency Ltd). BluSmart has now raised $75 million in EV asset financing.

BluSmart said it plans to use the funds to scale up its all-electric ride-hailing fleet to over 5,000 BluSmart EVs and expand its network of EV superhubs across the Delhi NCR (national capital region).

"BluSmart has been able to scale 25x since 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)," said Anmol Jaggi, Co-founder and Chief Executive Operator, BluSmart.

"BluSmart is creating inclusive and equitable economic opportunities for driver partners who can drive and earn without the hassles of asset ownership." Jaggi added.

BluSmart said it is committed to decarbonize mobility in mega cities of India. The company said it recently added long range EVs and has started its all-electric intercity service for its customers to travel from Delhi NCR to Jaipur and Chandigarh. BluSmart will look to scale its service at the Delhi International Airport and now has presence across all domestic and international terminals, the company said.

In September last year, BluSmart had raised $7 million from Inflection Point Ventures, Venture Catalysts, Survam Partners, Mumbai Angels, Chhatisgarh Investments Ltd, JITO Angels, Lets Venture Fund and Kaplavriksh Fund.