Hyderabad, July 9 (Reporter) IndiGo Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of India’s preferred airline IndiGo, today announced the first close of its maiden fund at Rs 450 crore. This is IndiGo Ventures’ first investment in Jeh Aerospace, a Hyderabad-based startup reimagining aerospace component supply chains through precision engineering, cost-efficient manufacturing, and seamless digital integration. In August last year, IndiGo Ventures, launched 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, the company said in a release. This first close and investment marks a significant step in IndiGo’s broader innovation agenda—combining operational expertise with capital to empower entrepreneurs solving critical challenges in aerospace and related domains. Coinciding with this milestone, the firm has also approved its first investment in Jeh Aerospace (for an undisclosed amount), one of the fastest-growing aerospace startups focused on high-precision aerospace and defence manufacturing. Within its first year of operations, Jeh Aerospace has scaled to a 100-member team of specialised 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. Pieter Elbers, Chief Executive Officer at IndiGo, said: “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. This investment also strengthens the Indo-U.S. aerospace ties, advances Make-in-India and accelerates innovation, contributing to realising India’s potential to become a global aerospace and aviation hub.” Vishal R. Sanghavi, Co-founder & CEO, Jeh Aerospace, said: “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”. Despite India being one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, the country is still a small player in the global aerospace manufacturing industry, highlighting a significant gap in domestic manufacturing capacity. Jeh will deploy the investment to scale its advanced digital manufacturing infrastructure, enhance its AI-driven production optimisation and deep supply chain integration platforms, and attract world-class engineering and production talent. Founded by industry veterans Vishal Sanghavi and Venkatesh Mudragalla—alumni of Tata’s aerospace joint ventures with Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Sikorsky—Jeh Aerospace combines deep sectoral expertise with sharp operational execution...////...