Three points you will get to know in this article:

1. About 80 BluSmart drivers demonstrated against job losses at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.
2. Drivers who were protesting demanded that the government take control of BluSmart’s business and rehire the drivers.
3. In order to stay afloat, struggling BluSmart is currently actively looking for a buyer.

Related: AI Startup Catalogus Scores Pre-seed Funding From Zeropearl VC

About 80 of BluSmart’s drivers gathered at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar today to protest job losses and call for the central government to step in, amid an increasingly dire situation for the EV ride-hailing firm BluSmart.

The drivers, who have been unemployed since BluSmart abruptly halted operations in April, called on the government to take over the business and recruit its employees again. Additionally, they demanded legislation that would ensure gig workers receive severance pay in the event that platforms shut down.

On April 17, the BluSmart driver app abruptly displayed a “Return to Hub” notification, bringing the drivers’ life to a complete halt.  Drivers thought it was a standard audit process at first, but they quickly discovered that the corporation had abruptly stopped providing them with information about their work status and no communication.

In addition to 10,000 drivers, around 800 BluSmart workers are now in limbo because their salaries haven’t been paid since March.  Their predicament has been covered in detail here.

When Gensol Engineering Limited, a backer of BluSmart, was downgraded to D (default/junk) by credit rating agencies ICRA and CARE in early March for persistently delaying debt servicing, the company’s problems started.

ICRA also warned that BluSmart’s delayed non-convertible debentures (NCD) repayments could seriously harm the company’s “financial flexibility and capital-raising ability” and accused Gensol’s founders, Anmol and Puneet Singh Jaggi, who also cofounded BluSmart, of submitting false data.

The Jaggi brothers were accused by market regulator SEBI in an interim ruling last month of misusing INR 262 Cr of company loans for personal needs, including supporting international travel and purchasing an apartment in DLF’s The Camellias. This further exacerbated the crisis.

To stay solvent, BluSmart is aggressively looking for a buyer.  According to sources who previously spoke to media, EverSource Capital is in advanced negotiations to purchase the EV ride-hailing business in a distressed sale for between INR 800 Cr and INR 1,000 Cr ($90 million to $120 million), which represents a sharp 60% decline from BluSmart’s most recent known valuation of $300 million.