For past few years, India’s air quality has been declining at a fast rate, and especially, Delhi, the national capital, has been ranked among the top three cities in the world to have above critical air quality. Hence, electric mobility is one of the counter measures to deal with the threat of air pollution.
Blu Smart, a Delhi-based electric mobility startup, has secured $2.2 million in seed funding. The funding has been done from a group of investors with Jain International Trade Organization (JITO) Angel Network leading the round. While MayField Fund and Centrum, Micromax and few individual investors among others also participated in the round.
The funds will be used to expand its offerings and services beyond Delhi NCR.
“The startup is working to build a holistic smart electric on-demand mobility platform covering the entire value chain of smart mobility, smart charging and smart parking,” said JITO Angel Network.
Blu Smart was founded by Anmol Jaggi and Punit K Goyal. The platform was initially launched in January 2019.
The company’s new plans include subscription-based car rentals, ride sharing on both electric cars and bikes, and shared electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure across Delhi NCR region.
The current EVs used by Blu have a range of about 180 Kms and it takes about 1 hour 30 mins to charge the battery till 80%. Deployed cars are using lithium-ion batteries of 18.55 KwH and can reach a top speed of 80 Km per hour.
The platform will also enable shared cab rides, similar to what Ola and Uber have done with OlaShare and UberPool, according to the company.
Furthermore, an Ola/ Uber driver confirmed that Blu Smart hires the drivers on a company payroll and thus number of rides taken and incentives do not have an effect on the driver’s earnings.
The company claimed that in one year, it has the potential to save over 2.2K metric tons of CO2 emissions in the National Capital Region. EVs used by Blu Smart run on just 20% of the operational cost of a traditional petrol-fueled car.
Besides Blu Smart, other players in the similar industry includes Ola Electric, Okinawa, Revolt, Ather Energy, Yulu, and among others.