British Petroleum (BP) has announced this morning that they have invested $13 million in integrated electric vehocles ride-hailing and charging company BluSmart.
The British multinational led a $25 million Series A investment round that also included Mayfield India Fund, 9Unicorns and Survam Partners, alongside other companies that had already bet in the startup.
Sophia Nadur, managing partner at bp ventures, will join BluSmart’s board. To date, bp ventures has invested almost $800 million in more than 60 companies across seven geographies.
BluSmart is India’s first and largest integrated EV ride-hailing and charging company.
This operation follows other related to the electric mobility and mobility as a service market segments, such as the mobility and fuels j-V agreement signed with Reliance in India; the joint venture along DiDi to build EV charging network in China; the invetment in citiy mobility start-up MaaS Global and or the investment in ultra-fat charging battery developer StoreDot (for more information on these movements, click on the links provided a the end of this post).
Growing quickly specially in Delhi
With the largest EV charging infrastructure in India and a growing fleet of electric vehicles, BluSmart aims to transform ride hailing in the country. Currently their business is growing quickly in Delhi NCR, which represents 20% of India’s mobility market.
A market , which BluSmart estimate has already saved over approximately 1,500 tonnes of CO2, with more than 650,000 passenger trips completed to date.
The startup aims to deliver safer, cleaner and more sustainable mobility.
It is the first service of its kind with no surge pricing or rides rejected by drivers.
Safety and cleanliness are musts in the Indian market, that’s why customers can view the last time each car was sanitised as well as driver vaccination status via the BluSmart app.
Blusmart also removes the financial burden of vehicle ownership by leasing vehicles to drivers and oversees all vehicle maintenance.
Economic growth and residential developments in India are driving the growth of the mobility as a service business.
Economic growth and urbanisation pushing forward mobility as a service market in India
India is now the third-largest startup market globally and its GDP is projected to be the world’s third largest by 2030. Yet with 35 of the top 50 most polluted cities globally, there’s a huge need for low carbon technologies to help make that growth compatible with its climate ambitions.
Urbanization is also increasing rapidly, with the UN projecting that India’s urban population size will nearly double from 2018 to 2050, potentially creating further congestion and environmental challenges that electric ride-hailing can help play a part in improving.
There’s also another fact to take into account: In india few people own a car.
The industry is forecast to grow significantly, with mobility as a service projected to make up 15% of the 1.1 trillion kilometres to be travelled by passenger vehicles in India by 2030, compared to 5% of the 477 billion kilometres travelled today.
Richard Bartlett, SVP future mobility & solutions, said: “The electric mobility revolution will have a huge impact in reducing vehicle emissions in cities, which in India are growing quickly. 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. Our partnership is underpinned by shared values; caring for customers, colleagues and the environment, and with safety at the core of everything we do. We are excited to have made our first direct investment in India, to grow alongside the BluSmart business.”
Anmol Singh Jaggi, co-founder of BluSmart, added: “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.”
Image over the headline.- © BluSmart
Related Eastwind links:
BP and Reliance sign mobility and fuels j-v in India
BP and DiDi launch joint venture to build EV charging infrastructure in China
BP invests in city mobility start-up MaaS Global
BP Ventures invests in ultra-fast charging battery developer StoreDot
Related external links:
BP ventures invests in BluSmart in India (tweet with video)
