BluSmart drivers in major Indian cities have gone on strike to protest alleged delayed wages and "abrupt" mass layoffs after the company suspended operations.

In April 2025, People Matters reported that BluSmart was facing mounting financial difficulties and workers' salaries were delayed.

As noted by the BBC, BluSmart, launched in 2019, raised "millions of dollars" in funding from global investors and "found a spot on every major clean-tech awards list since it launched". People Matters names some investors in BluSmart, saying the company raised USD180 million in debt and equity from bp Ventures, Venture Catalysts, Green Frontier Capital, and responsAbility.

The BBC reported in April that BluSmart had halted its services in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi after the Indian market regulator found gross financial mismanagement by the founders, who were allegedly diverting loans from another company they owned to buy personal assets. It says BluSmart leased its vehicles from Gensol Engineering, which is run by the same owners as BluSmart. The credit rating of Gensol was downgraded after it was found BluSmart defaulted on its payments to the company. BluSmart did not respond to the BBC.

In May 2025, Inc42 reported that over 10,000 drivers lost their jobs after the company ceased operations, leading to mass protests. Many of the drivers are breadwinners for their family. The protestors demand the government intervenes in the case, including demanding BluSmart offers severance pay to the drivers and asking for ownership of the cabs they were running for BluSmart.

An article in The Indian Express says the BluSmart layoffs show the insecurity of platform work, exacerbated by defining workers as independent contractors rather than employees.

In August, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre invited the investors, bp Ventures, Venture Catalysts, Green Frontier Capital, and responsAbility, to respond to the reporting and to disclose any human rights due diligence they undertake to inform their investment decisions, including steps they take to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for adverse impacts by investee companies. Responses from bp Ventures and responsAbility can be read in full below. Venture Catalysts and Green Frontier Capital did not respond.