Thala, For What Reason? Dhoni, Deepika And Other Marquee Investors Behind BluSmart's Rise

As of December 31, 37.4% of Gensol Engineering's shares were held by public investors. And at the close of the quarter, it was turning out to have been a good bet. The scrip had given a 68% return moving to the mainboard while the firm's third-quarter earnings were modest.

But all of that came crashing down when the company's debt rating was cut to default last month, triggering a selling spree which resulted in the company losing nearly 80% of its market capitalisation in a span of 30 days.

Amid the Securities and Exchange Board of India's order against the promoters and a widening scope of investigation, a retail investor might feel that they were tricked into believing, and investing, in the Jaggis' story.

But the same Jaggis were also smart enough to have brought in investments from MS Dhoni and Deepika Padukone's family offices.

As NDTV Profit has already reported, Gensol is BluSmart and BluSmart is Gensol. Soon after SEBI came out with its interim order, BluSmart’s services were unavailable across Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

According to data from PrivateCircle, nearly a third of BluSmart is held by the Jaggi brothers. BP Ventures holds a 14.3% stake, coming in at the series A stage, with the ride hailing platform proudly calling the $25 million round as the "world's largest" A-round fundraising in the mobility sector.

In 2019, the firm was reported to have raised $3 million in an angel round from investors including Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone’s family office Ka Enterprises, and Bajaj Finserv's Sanjiv Bajaj, among other investors. 

In July 2024, BluSmart raised Rs 200 crore from other key new investors including Swiss impact investor ResponsAbility, former India cricket captain MS Dhoni's family office and ReNew Chairman Sumant Sinha.

Equity investments were not the only way people could find their way into BluSmart. Even today, the company's website offers investment opportunities to owners of electric vehicles, through a program called BluSmart Assure. Among other things, the Assure program claims "proven track record of company and promoter" and a "20%+ IRR potential post tax."

It claims to have secured "EV asset financing with backing from Development Financial Institutions," including IREDA and PFC.

To add some perspective, the SEBI probe found Gensol secured loans worth Rs 978 crore from IREDA and PFC, of which, Rs 664 crore was allocated for the purchase of 6,400 EVs. Only 4,704 units were ever accounted for.

But BluSmart was never a subsidiary of Gensol. The latter's latest annual report shows contracts worth over Rs 148 crore with BluSmart’s subsidiaries. And that shows how deep their ties were.