Friday 1 October 2021

bp leads $25m funding round in Indian EV ride-hailing start-up

Energy giant bp has backed EV ride-hailing and charging start-up BluSmart with $13 million (£9.7m) of financial backing, its first direct investment in India.

It led a $25 million (£18.6m) funding round, including investments by Mayfield India Fund, 9Unicorns and Survam Partners, alongside other investors, with BluSmart using the capital to expand its fleet of electric vehicles (EVs) and charging stations from its home city of Delhi to five additional cities in India over the next two years.

BluSmart's service is said to be the first of its kind with no surge pricing or rides rejected by drivers and its vehicles are leased to drivers with no financial burden of vehicle ownership.

The company estimates its service has already helped save around 1,500 tonnes of carbon emissions, with more than 650,000 passenger trips completed to date.

Anmol Singh Jaggi, Co-founder of BluSmart said: “We believe that electric mobility has huge growth potential, driven in part by the increasingly favourable economics behind electric vehicles. 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 travelled over 21 million kilometres.

“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.”