Rishab Sood News Today

BluSmart aims for Rs 800 crore FY25 revenue, with BP Ventures support. Competing with Rapido, Namma Yatri, targeting Ebitda profitability by 2026. Founder Jaggi under investor scrutiny for Dubai connections.

Indian EV ride-hailing platform BluSmart has raised $25 million from ResponsAbility to expand its EV charging infrastructure. The investment includes $20 million in debt and $5 million in equity funding. BluSmart currently operates 6,000 EV cabs and owns 4,000 EV chargers across Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru.

This is BluSmarts first move away from having no differential fares, which it has marketed as a unique selling proposition against larger competitors Uber and Ola.

The funding was in the form of a rights issue, and has not seen participation from new investors. The round also saw BluSmarts founders increasing their stake in the company.

This will be the second biggest induction of EVs by the startup in 2023. In March this year, Gensol Engineering, the BSE-listed engineering solutions provider, had raised Rs643 crore from state-run Power Finance Corp. to purchase 5,000 e-cars from Tata Motors and MG Motor India, and to lease them to sister company BluSmart and a few of its other customers.

Exponent Energy had last raised $13 million in August 2022 in a Series A led by Lightspeed that valued the Bengaluru-based startup at around $45 million.