BluSmart Drivers Stage Protest Over Unpaid Salaries, Abrupt Job Losses

In a growing crisis for EV ride-hailing startup BluSmart, around 80 of its drivers gathered at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar today, protesting job losses and urging the central government to intervene.

The drivers, jobless since BluSmart abruptly suspended operations in April, urged the government to take over the company’s operations and rehire its workforce. They also called for legislation guaranteeing severance pay for gig workers when platforms shut down.

The lives of BluSmart drivers came to a standstill on April 17, when the BluSmart driver app unexpectedly displayed a ‘Return to Hub’ message. Drivers initially assumed it was a routine audit procedure, but soon realised that the company had silently halted services, offering no communication or clarity on their employment status.

Besides 10,000 drivers, nearly 800 BluSmart employees, are also in limbo, with salaries pending since March. We have written extensively .

The trouble for the company began in early March, when credit rating agencies and CARE downgraded BluSmart backer Gensol Engineering Limited to D (default/junk) due to perpetual delay in debt servicing.

— Anmol and Puneet Singh Jaggi, who also cofounded BluSmart, of submitting falsified data and warned that BluSmart’s delayed non-convertible debentures (NCD) repayments could severely damage “financial flexibility and capital-raising ability” of the company.

The crisis deepened last month when market regulator SEBI, in an interim order, accused the Jaggi brothers of misusing INR 262 Cr of company loans for personal expenses, such as buying an apartment in DLF’s The Camellias, funding foreign trips, etc.

Meanwhile, BluSmart is actively seeking a buyer to stay afloat. Sources earlier told Inc42 that EverSource Capital is in advanced talks to acquire the EV ride-hailing startup in a distressed sale, offering around INR 800 Cr to INR 1,000 Cr ($90 Mn–$120 Mn), a steep 60% drop from BluSmart’s last known $300 Mn valuation.

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