Actor Deepika Padukone’s family office has invested in Blu Smart- an electric taxi startup, as part of an angel round of $3 million, the startup said on Monday.
While Padukone has invested via Ka Enterprises, other investors include JITO Angel Network, Bajaj Capital managing director Sanjiv Bajaj and Rajat Gupta, the now-disgraced former managing director of McKinsey.
Founded by Puneet Singh Jaggi, Anmol Singh Jaggi and Punit K Goyal in October 2018, the startup claims to have served over 20,000 customers since its launch in just 3 months in Delhi NCR region.
Blu Smart is building an all electric ecosystem with strategic partnerships across automotive, infrastructure and energy companies and plans to on–board 15,000 electric cars, 2500 chargers on its all electric ride sharing platform by 2021 while creating job opportunities for drivers.
“Blu Smart is focused on superior mobility experience for its customers, cost savings, passenger safety and security. Our new innovative urban mobility offering gives customers personal freedom to travel whenever they want without the hassles of car ownership and stress of finding parking spots in densely populated urban areas,” said Punit K Goyal, Cofounder, Blu Smart.
Blu Smart has appointed, Centrum Capital as advisor for the second round of capital raising.
Mobility and electric vehicles continue to be a prominent startup theme, with Ola Electric, the EV arm of ride-hailing unicorn raising $250 million from SoftBank’s Vision Fund earlier this year. In addition, Mint reported on May 28 that e-scooter maker Ather Energy has raised $51 million led by Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal.
Padukone has been an active investor in startups, with bets on companies such as yogurt-maker Epigamia and space technology startup Bellatrix Aerospace.
The article was first reported on livemint.com