“Do not expect any refund of your wallet money,” said BluSmart, the now-defunct EV ride-hailing company, in a post on X, addressing users whose funds remain stuck in their digital wallets after the company abruptly ceased operations. The company also urged users not to message its social media accounts and revealed that employee salaries had been unpaid for four months.
BluSmart was once one of India’s most promising electric ride-hailing startups and a potential rival to aggregators like NammaYatri, Uber, Rapido, and Ola. However, its collapse highlights broader founder-led frauds in India’s startup ecosystem and raises concerns over consumer fund protection in digital payments.
What was the Business model of BluSmart?
BluSmart, which positioned itself as India’s first all-electric ride-hailing service, was founded in January 2019 by brothers Anmol and Puneet Singh Jaggi and Punit K. Goyal. The company operated mainly in Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, and Mumbai, and briefly in Dubai. It promoted itself as a reliable, premium, eco-friendly alternative to conventional ride-hailing services.
Before suspending operations in April 2025, BluSmart claimed to operate a fleet of about 8,000 electric vehicles, roughly 5,000 of which were owned or leased by Gensol Engineering and then subleased to BluSmart. Only a few hundred cars were directly owned by the company. Its fleet included EVs from multiple car brands, and it offered fixed, surge-free pricing, zero ride cancellations through salaried professional drivers, and punctual service.
Unlike commission-based competitors, BluSmart employed drivers on fixed salaries, allowing them to choose shifts ranging from 6 to 12 hours. The company also emphasised its environmental commitment and was certified by Verra, a US-based nonprofit that accredits organizations for carbon credits based on CO₂ emission reductions.
Why BluSmart defaulted?
In a February 2025 exchange filing with SEBI, the company disclosed that it had procured 4,704 EVs. Its auto supplier, Go-Auto, confirmed sales of the same number of vehicles for Rs 568 crore. SEBI later noted that Rs 262.13 crore, the gap between the expected deployment of about Rs 830 crore and the actual spend, remained unaccounted for over a year after the company received funding.
In March 2025, Care Ratings, an India-based credit rating agency, downgraded BluSmart to Grade D — indicating a high likelihood of default — for its Rs 716 crore bank loan, after it delayed payments on term loan obligations. The following month, SEBI ordered the founding brothers, Anmol and Puneet Singh Jaggi, to step down from their positions. The regulator accused them of diverting company funds into personal ventures and shell companies.
By April 2025, BluSmart officially announced that it had suspended operations and halted ride bookings. On July 28, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Ahmedabad admitted an insolvency petition against…
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