IndiGo Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of India's largest airline, IndiGo, has announced the successful first close of its debut fund, raising an impressive ₹450 crore.This significant milestone comes shortly after receiving regulatory approval from SEBI in August 2024 to establish a ₹600 crore Alternative Investment Fund (AIF).Coinciding with this first close, IndiGo Ventures has also made its inaugural investment, backing Jeh Aerospace, a promising Hyderabad-based startup specializing in high-precision aerospace and defense manufacturing. The exact investment amount in Jeh Aerospace remains undisclosed.
IndiGo Ventures was launched with a strategic vision to invest in early-stage startups that are driving innovation across the aviation sector and allied industries. The fund primarily targets companies at the pre-Series A to Series B stages, emphasizing long-term strategic alignment with IndiGo's broader objectives of enhancing India's aviation ecosystem and contributing to its emergence as a global aviation hub.
Pieter Elbers, CEO of IndiGo, highlighted the strategic importance of this venture. "Through IndiGo Ventures, we are excited to partner with Jeh Aerospace, a homegrown brand that shares our vision and spirit of strengthening the Indian aviation ecosystem. By combining our technical expertise and global footprint, this partnership will propel the use of next-generation technology in the aerospace and aviation sector. This investment also strengthens the Indo-U.S. aerospace ties, advances Make-in-India and accelerates innovation, contributing to realizing India's potential to become a global aerospace and aviation hub," Elbers stated.
Jeh Aerospace, founded by industry veterans Vishal R. Sanghavi and Venkatesh Mudragalla (alumni of Tata's aerospace joint ventures with Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Sikorsky), has rapidly made a name for itself in the high-precision aerospace and defense manufacturing space.Within just its first year of operations, the company has scaled to a team of 100 specialized engineers and technicians, delivered over 100,000 flight-critical aero-engine components and precision tools meeting stringent AS9100 standards, and secured an impressive $100 million in long-term contracts with global aerospace companies.
The investment from IndiGo Ventures will be instrumental for Jeh Aerospace. The startup plans to deploy the capital to scale its advanced digital manufacturing infrastructure, enhance its AI-driven production optimization and deep supply chain integration platforms, and attract world-class engineering and production talent.Vishal R. Sanghavi, Co-founder & CEO of Jeh Aerospace, commented, "This investment empowers us to scale production capacity to meet growing demand from our global customers, ensuring flawless, on-time delivery of high-precision components. Partnering with IndiGo, a leader in aviation, allows us to enhance India's aerospace infrastructure and bring precise, reliable components to market faster."
Despite India being one of the fastest-growing aviation markets globally, the country still remains a relatively minor player in the global aerospace manufacturing industry, with significant gaps in domestic production capacity.IndiGo Ventures' investment in Jeh Aerospace directly addresses this gap, aiming to foster indigenous capabilities and reduce reliance on imports for critical aerospace components.
This move by IndiGo marks a growing trend among large Indian corporates to establish venture arms to strategically invest in startups that align with their core businesses, leveraging both capital and industry expertise to drive innovation and create synergistic growth opportunities. As the aviation sector continues its recovery and expansion, collaborations like this are expected to play a crucial role in shaping its future.