Blusmart investors offer $30 million in new funding to restore Uber competitors

TechCrunch learned that a group of investors are considering a plan to inject another $30 million into Blusmart to resume the Indian taxi factory startup that suddenly ceased operations last month. These existing investors’ proposals have gained: Its factor was agreed to resign from Blusmart co-founder Anmol Singh Jaggi.

The proposed investment will be handled in the form of unsecured debt, aiming to address the startup's operating debt, including pending membership dues and employee salaries, two sources told TechCrunch.

Blusmart investors have pro-RATA rights, including BP Ventures and a Swiss-based sense of responsibility, and began discussing the resolution last week. BP refused to comment when contacted on Monday.

Although Jaggi has not signed Blusmart's resignation yet, sources told TechCrunch that he verbally agreed to resign from the board, but guaranteed that he will not face any future legal action by Blusmart's investors.

Jaggi and another co-founder of Blusmart, Punit K. Goyal, did not respond to messages sent earlier this week.

Blusmart stopped its investigation into Gensol Engineering last month, its main EV lessor and the company that shares Jaggi as its co-founder. The move affected riders who searched for electric vehicles, its investors and 600 employees, who received their salaries until at least March.

TechCrunch learned that the Gurugram-based startup has about INR 2.5 billion (about US$30 million) of postal dues, including INR 50 billion to INR 600 million payments to employees.

As a result of its service suspension, about 8,700 electric vehicles on the Blusmart fleet were also abandoned. If the startup does not restart the service as soon as possible, this may affect the health of the battery and other components of the vehicle.

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The suspension also affected Blusmart drivers, some of whom went on strike in New Delhi to protest the move. Some of these failed drivers may see some relief as Delhi-based EV taxi service Evera Cabs recently announced that Blusmart lenders have rented 500 taxis. The startup also hopes to add 1,000 EV cabs related to the Blusmart and some of its drivers.

Existing Blusmart investors don't want the startup to lose its brand by letting other taxi companies, including Evera and even Uber, use their fleets.

Sources told TechCrunch that investors are eager to restart the service in the next three weeks. Nevertheless, Blusmart's comeback faces some challenges. One of them is the alleged corporate governance issue, in addition to the indirect impact of startups in Gensol. The Indian Ministry of Corporate Affairs recently launched an investigation into Gensol and Blusmart for this.

Jaggi's resignation from Blusmart is not that certain. Indian Stock Exchange regulator ordered Jaggi and his brother to resign when they initiated the investigation. However, the direction of the regulator does not apply to Blusmart, a private entity.

Eversource Capital, a climate investment fund backed by UK BP, bought Blusmart's interest in amid downturn sales last month, as Indian Outlet Inc42 first reported. The fund proposes to merge startups with its B2B fleet operator Lithium City. However, the Blusmart board has not agreed to the proposal, as the offer lowered the startup’s valuation at a price of 60% below its $300 million.

TechCrunch learned last month that Lithium Urban is struggling as an increasingly loss company, with most of its vehicles ending. One person familiar with the matter said Sanjay Krishnan, the original founder of Lithium Urban, also gave up on the business. Eversource Capital and Lithium Urban did not respond to requests for comment at the time.

TechCrunch learned last month that the Indian group Adani Group also expressed interest in buying EV Cab-Cab-Cab-Cab-ling Startup to use fleets at airports. The company held early talks with the Blusmart board of directors. It already has Uber as a fleet partner.

Adani Group did not respond to a request for comment.

Still, Blusmart investors hope the startup can be better positioned to attract investments in strategies like Eversource Capital, Uber or Adani.