Electric ride-hailing startup BluSmart has raised $24 million in a new equity round with participation and over-subscription from existing investors, founders and leadership team, the company announced on Thursday. BluSmart, which competes with larger cab booking services such as Ola and Uber, said it will deploy the capital to build large-scale EV charging stations. Currently, BluSmart operates over 5,500 EVs and more than 4,000 EV chargers across 34 EV charging ‘Superhubs’. The company operates the largest EV charging Superhub infrastructure spread across 1.3 million square feet in Delhi NCR and Bengaluru.
BluSmart’s existing investors include BP Ventures, Inflection Point Ventures, Mayfield India Fund, Survam Partners, LetsVenture, 9Unicorns, Trifecta Capital, Green Frontier Capital, Alteria Capital, Black Soil, Stride Ventures and others.
The startup has crossed $50 million in annual revenue run-rate and is growing at more than 100 per cent year-on-year, it said in a statement. “We will continue to expand our brand promise of zero ride denials, on time service and clean mobility to more geographies. The overwhelming support for the rights issue by our investors and belief exhibited by leading Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) shows exceptional confidence in our mission” said Anmol Singh Jaggi, Co-founder and CEO, BluSmart.
BluSmart has secured long-term and sustainable EV asset financing of around $200 million backed by leading Development Financial Institutions (DFIs). The startup said it aims to scale to nearly 8,000 EVs fleet size across Delhi NCR and Bengaluru by next year.
Tushar Garg, CEO, BluSmart Charging business said EV charging infrastructure is the biggest bottleneck for large-scale EV adoption and is also the single largest opportunity. Cities have challenges with finite prime locations and lack of adequate power load.”
According to the available data, India’s online taxi services market was pegged at Rs 30.72 billion in FY 2020 and is likely to grow at a CAGR of 12.93 per cent between FY 2021 and FY 2025 to reach Rs 55.15 billion by FY25.