BP Ventures is continuing its emobility push with a $13 million (£9.7 million) investment into India’s first integrated electric vehicle (EV) ride hailing and charging business.
BluSmart is to use the capital to expand its fleet of EVs and charging stations from its home city of Delhi to five additional Indian cities in the next two years. The investment is also to help BP move towards becoming a leader in India’s mobility market.
It led the $25 million Series A funding round, which also saw support from Mayfield India Fund, 9Unicorns and Suryam Partners alongside existing investors.
It follows a string of investments into the EV space from BP Ventures, including a recent €10 million (£8.6 million) investment into in-car payment app ryd, as well as a US$7 million (£5 million) investment into IoTecha.
This is to see IoTecha’s internet of things (IoT) EV charging products integrated into BP’s EV infrastructure, optimising the charging process by automating payments and delivering cost and potential energy savings to customers.
BP Ventures also invested in US-headquartered energy tech company FreeWire Technologies in 2020 to support the commercialisation of its ultra-fast EV charging technologies.
In total, BP Ventures has made ten investments into the mobility space, although the investment into BluSmart is its first direct investment in India.
Sophia Nadur, managing partner at BP Ventures, is to join BluSmart’s board following the investment.
“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,” said Richard Bartlett, SVP future mobility & solutions.
