BluSmart, a ride-hailing startup focusing on electric vehicles, posted more than INR 390 crore in revenue in fiscal 2024, compared with about INR 160 crore in FY23, cofounder Punit Goyal told ET.
The firm has also crossed INR 500 crore in annualised revenue run rate (ARR), he added. BluSmart competes with Uber and Ola, as well as new entrants like Rapido and Namma Yatri in the cab-hailing space.
BluSmart is much smaller compared with Ola and Uber and operates only in two cities: Bengaluru and the National Capital Region.
In FY23, Ola Cabs reported a 58% increase in revenue at INR 2,135 crore, while Uber posted 54% growth in operating revenue to INR 2,666 crore. Uber’s ride-hailing revenue was INR 678 crore in FY23. Bengaluru-based Rapido saw its operating revenue triple to INR 443 crore.
However, these three companies firmly remain in the red. Meanwhile, the ride-hailing space is heating up once again after recovering from a pandemic-induced slump.
On April 12, ONDC-backed Namma Yatri, which was focused on auto rickshaws, launched cab services in Bengaluru, where it will charge a daily subscription instead of a commission per ride, which is the model used by Ola and Uber. In December, bike-taxi-focused platform Rapido also expanded into cab services.
BluSmart, founded in 2019, is aiming to cross INR 800 crore in revenue in FY25, Goyal said. Unlike its competitors, the company owns or leases all of its fleet of cars and charging stations, and employs drivers who are paid a combination of fixed salaries and performance-based incentives.
In the current fiscal year, the firm will be focused on going deeper into its two markets: NCR and Bengaluru. BluSmart currently sees an average spending of INR 450 per ride by its customers.
However, the BP Ventures-backed company is also some distance away from profitability, and will only turn profitable on an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) level in March 2026, Goyal said, attributing the delay in reaching profitability to the capital-intensive nature of the business.
The company, founded by Goyal, Anmol Singh Jaggi, Puneet Singh Jaggi, Anirudh Arun, Tushar Garg, Rishab Sood and Rahul Jain, has faced trouble raising external capital over the last few years. In mid-2022, the firm said it was looking to raise USD 250 million from investors including BP’s venture capital division, but ended up conducting two smaller fundraising instances totalling about USD 66 million in 2023, including a rights issue later in the year that saw its founders increase their stake.
BluSmart also raised USD 25 million in a mix of debt and equity in January this year from Zurich-based climate finance firm ResponsAbility.
The company’s founder and chief executive Anmol Singh Jaggi has come under the spotlight for alleged connection with Dubai-based hawala operator Hari Shankar Tibrewala.
Jaggi’s listed renewables energy firm Gensol Engineering’s share price started plummeting after news that one of Tibrewala’s investment vehicles was an investor in it. The company clarified in stock exchange filings that the investment vehicle, Zenith Multi Trading DMCC, held less than 1.5% of Gensol Engineering.
