Once India’s EV poster child, BluSmart has halted services after SEBI exposed massive fund misuse, unravelling a cautionary tale of ambition, misgovernance, and lost trust. What exactly happened?
BluSmart, once celebrated as India’s green mobility pioneer, has come to a grinding halt. The electric ride-hailing platform, which had earned accolades for its punctuality, cleanliness, and eco-conscious operations, suspended its services last week across Indian cities including Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, and Mumbai.
This drastic move followed an interim order issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on 15 April 2025, which exposed serious financial misconduct by Anmol Singh Jaggi and Puneet Singh Jaggi, co-founders of both BluSmart and Gensol Engineering.
This egregious misuse of funds meant for electric vehicle (EV) acquisition, described by Sebi as treating the company like a “personal piggy bank,” triggered this, banning the Jaggi brothers from participating in capital markets or holding directorial roles in Gensol.
Among the misappropriations was the purchase of a ₹2.6 million golf set and a luxury apartment in Gurugram’s DLF Camellias, where properties are valued upwards of ₹700 million. These allegations dealt a severe blow to investor confidence, not only in Gensol but in BluSmart, which was intricately linked to Gensol’s operations and financing.
BluSmart’s business model was heavily dependent on Gensol’s financial infrastructure. The latter financed a fleet of over 5000 EVs through substantial loans from public lenders such as the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) and Power Finance Corporation (PFC). These vehicles were then leased to BluSmart for ride-hailing operations.
With SEBI’s intervention and the ensuing leadership crisis at Gensol, lease payments reportedly stopped, pushing lenders to consider auctioning the EVs to avoid further losses, preventing the loans from becoming non-performing assets.
This sudden disruption caused chaos for BluSmart users. Passengers at Delhi airport and elsewhere were unable to book cabs through the app. In response, BluSmart issued a message stating that bookings were temporarily closed and offered assurances that wallet balances would be refunded within 90 days should services not resume.
“We’ve decided to temporarily close bookings on the BluSmart app. We truly appreciate your support,” notified an email on 17 April 2025.
Airports and city transit authorities were forced to reassure the public that alternative cab options remained available. According to various reports, the company appeared to be internally bracing for a possible shutdown, with talks underway about shifting its fleet to Uber and exiting the ride-hailing business entirely.
As per a Mint report, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs is also examining whether to launch a formal probe into both Gensol and BluSmart, explicitly focusing on corporate governance failures and fund diversion.
Several sources have indicated that preliminary assessments were being conducted, and any official investigation would examine the flow of money into personal acquisitions, transfers to related parties, and irregularities in financial disclosures.
Furthermore, independent directors, sensing the storm ahead, began resigning en masse from Gensol, citing financial concerns and distancing themselves from the allegations.
BluSmart’s collapse comes despite significant funding rounds over the past few years. From its inception in 2019, the company had raised millions from major investors, including Hero MotoCorp, Jito Angel Network, and a climate finance firm from Switzerland. Besides, partnerships with Tata Motors and Jio-BP had fuelled its fleet and infrastructure growth.
BluSmart boasted over 3900 charging stations and projected annual revenues nearing ₹4 billion by 2024. As recently as February, the company announced it would power its 6000-strong electric cab fleet using solar energy from Tata Power.
However, cracks had perhaps begun to emerge beneath the sleek marketing and clean rides. Reports in March 2025 indicated that BluSmart was spending over ₹200 million monthly to sustain operations and was attempting to raise ₹4.15 billion in new funding.
The collapse of that fundraising effort—coinciding with the SEBI revelations—proved to be the tipping point. Investor sentiment soured instantly, and BluSmart’s position became untenable.
The wider implications for India’s EV startup landscape are profound. BluSmart’s story bears uncomfortable parallels to that of Ola Electric, another headline-grabbing EV firm currently under scrutiny.
According to a comparison drawn by TICE news, Ola Electric recently faced over 10,000 customer complaints about refund delays, quality issues, and poor after-sales service. The company received a show-cause notice from the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), raising concerns about consumer protection and service standards.
Additionally, Ola Maps became embroiled in a legal row with MapMyIndia, which accused Ola of misusing proprietary data—a case that further eroded trust in the firm’s practices.
Both BluSmart and Ola Electric were seen as pillars of India’s push towards sustainable urban mobility. Their struggles now suggest systemic vulnerabilities within the sector, particularly around governance, financial discipline, and operational transparency.
While the technology and public appetite for EVs are growing, these incidents seems to reflect the risks of scaling too quickly without solid regulatory and ethical foundations.
The downfall of BluSmart also shows the fragility of startup ecosystems where ambition often outpaces accountability. What started as a well-intentioned move towards decarbonising transport has become a case study of how financial opacity, intertwined leadership roles, and blurred organisational boundaries can derail even the most promising ventures.
