BluSmart’s angels: Deepika Padukone, MS Dhoni, Sanjeev Bajaj among popular faces who invested in Anmol Jaggi’s startup

BluSmart launched in 2018 and quickly stole the limelight, catching the attention of many angel investors who bought stakes of the company in various rounds of fundraising. The all-EV fleet, promise to be on time, and a greener alternative to traditional ride-hailing apps took India by storm, and investors saw an opportunity to benefit from the perks.

According to a report by NDTV Profit quoting data from PrivateCircle, Anmol Singh Jaggi holds almost 25 per cent stake at BluSmart, while his brother Puneet Singh Jaggi has a share of nearly 5 per cent in the company.

The Gensol Engineering co-founders, Jaggi brothers, had a smooth run with BluSmart until Sebi on Tuesday barred the company and them from the securities markets till further orders in a fund diversion and governance lapses case. The regulator has also debarred Anmol and Puneet Singh Jaggi from holding the position of a director or key managerial personnel in Gensol until further orders.

Months and years before the Sebi order, though, BluSmart and the Jaggi brothers, who co-founded the company, a number of well-known investors bought stakes in the app cab company. The most prominent names include MS Dhoni, Deepika Padukone, Sanjeev Bajaj and Ashneer Grover.

BluSmart's famous investors: Deepika Padukone, MS Dhoni, others

In 2019, Deepika Padukone’s family office has invested in BluSmart as part of an angel round of $3 million.

In the same round, Bajaj Capital managing director Sanjiv Bajaj also made an investment. Other prominent investors included JITO Angel Network and Rajat Gupta.

More recently in 2024, BluSmart raised $24 million in a pre-Series B funding round from investors including MS Dhoni's family office. ReNew Power chief executive officer Sumant Sinha, and responsAbility Investments, a Switzerland-based asset management company had also invested in the company at the time.

Ashneer Grover, founder of BharatPe, also revealed in an X post that he had invested ₹1.5 crore in BluSmart, calling himself a ‘victim’ of the fiasco.

“I am the ‘victim’ of the current scenario having personally invested ₹1.5 crore in BluSmart and ₹0.25 cr in Matrix. I hope the business company can survive the current fiasco for sake of its stakeholders,” he said.

BluSmart suspends operations

Several passengers across Delhi-NCR, Bangalore and Mumbai were unable to book cabs through ride hailing app BluSmart since Wednesday.

Multiple attempts to book BluSmart rides failed since Wednesday evening, according to various customers. The app remained unoperational on Thursday as well.

“We've decided to temporarily close bookings on the BluSmart app. We truly appreciate your support. While we strive to be back soon, we will initiate a refund within 90 days if services do not resume before that,” the firm said in an email to customers without giving any reasons.