NEW DELHI: IndiGo Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of India’s largest airline IndiGo, on Wednesday announced the first close of its maiden fund at Rs 450 crore. IndiGo has also approved its first investment (an undisclosed amount) in Hyderabad-based Jeh Aerospace, a fast-growing startup focused on high-precision aerospace and defence manufacturing.
Within its first year of operations, Jeh Aerospace has scaled to a 100-member team of specialized engineers and technicians, delivered 100,000 flight-critical aeroengine components and precision tools meeting AS9100 standards, and secured $100 million in long-term contracts with global aerospace companies.
“By combining our technical expertise and global footprint, this partnership will propel use of next-generation technology in the aerospace and aviation sector. This investment also strengthens the Indo-US aerospace ties, advances Make-in-India and accelerates innovation, contributing to realising India’s potential to become a global aerospace and aviation hub,” said Pieter Elbers, Chief Executive Officer at IndiGo.
In a statement, IndiGo said that despite India being one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, the country is still a small player in global aerospace manufacturing industry, highlighting a significant gap in domestic manufacturing capacity.
It added that Jeh will deploy the investment 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, Jeh Aerospace said that this investment empowers them to scale production capacity to meet growing demand from their global customers, ensuring flawless, on-time delivery of high-precision components. Jeh is founded by Sanghavi and Venkatesh Mudragalla, alumni of Tata’s aerospace joint ventures with Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Sikorsky.
IndiGo Ventures, launched in August 2024 with regulatory approval from SEBI to raise Rs 600 crore, is focused on investing in early-stage startups driving innovation in aviation and allied sectors. The fund targets companies at the pre-Series A to Series B stages, with an emphasis on long-term strategic alignment.