BluSmart investors look to buy Jaggi’s stake, take control

If the transaction goes through, it would protect investors’ money, keep drivers employed, and bring Blusmart’s blue-and-white electric cabs back on the streets. It would also mean the complete exit of Jaggis, who founded the company six years ago.

Investors led by BP Ventures are in advanced talks to take charge of the company, said the people, who are investors in Blusmart as well as Gensol Engineering Ltd, Jaggis’ other company. According to Tracxn, promoters held about 23.98% in Blusmart as of February 2025, with the rest owned by investors including Softbank, Mayfield India Fund, 100 Unicorns, responsAbility as well as celebrities like actor Deepika Padukone and cricketer M.S. Dhoni.

Jaggi and BP Ventures did not respond to queries.

Investors hope to buy out Jaggi’s shares at par value, request private lenders to write off some of the loans, and invest additional capital to restart operations, the people added. A big chunk of Blusmart’s ₹850 crore borrowing is owed to Gensol.

On 16 April, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) issued an interim order barring the Jaggi brothers from the stock market and holding directorships in any listed company, after finding suspected cases of forgery and fund diversion. Sebi found Jaggi had misused funds from financial institutions to buy Blusmart’s cars for his own personal use.

Shares of Gensol crashed following the news, while Blusmart, a private company founded by the Jaggi brothers, ground to a halt.

“If his demat account is frozen by Sebi, then he cannot do anything about his shares even if they are unlisted shares. He could have done something if they were not frozen,” said advocate Chirag M. Shah, a senior securities lawyer. The Sebi order has barred fresh activity in the account, except for settling earlier orders and closing derivative positions.

According to Amarjit Chopra, former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Blusmart’s investors can appeal to Sebi to allow transactions that will secure its business. “At best, the transaction may result in any payment due to Blusmart promoters going to an escrow account,” Chopra said.

Cab hailing giant Uber earlier explored a deal with Blusmart, but that turned out to be a non-starter as it wanted to include Blusmart’s cars in fleet, but not buy out its investors. Being an asset-light model, Uber also did not want to take the burden of Blusmart’s lease rentals, which fell short of the deal that lenders who financed the cars were looking for.

Said Abizer Diwanji, founder of NeoStrat Advisors: “The investors in Blusmart need to call for a complete restructuring in the ownership and debt of the company. It should be done in such a way that eventually, Blusmart is able to cut off its umbilical cord with Gensol and be able to go its own way.”

Considered a successful ride hailing company until recently, Blusmart abruptly ceased operations in mid-April.

The investors are keen on tying up a deal quickly since Blusmart was considered a viable business with profitable unit economics per ride until it went of the roads. Its operations were monitored regularly by investors like BP Ventures which had a representative in its board, and its services had earned customer loyalty, despite being pricier. Though lead times to book a Blusmart cab were longer, its drivers seldom cancelled trips. Technically too, it is imperative to get the cars moving. Batteries left unused for long undergo deep discharge, and reviving degraded batteries can be costly.

Though resuming operations will immediately help Blusmart investors to preserve their capital, it will also be useful to other stakeholders. It will give Jaggis liquidity and restart payment of lease rentals to Jaggi-promoted Gensol Engineering, which owns a big chunk of cars that Blusmart runs in its fleet. The cars are now hypothecated to its lenders by Gensol, and servicing those loans is essential to bring the cars back on the road.