Indigo, India’s largest airline and Asia’s largest individual airline, is venturing into the investing business, with the launch of ‘Indigo Ventures’. The VC fund, which received a nod from India’s securities regulator SEBI, will focus on Series A/B investments in startups in the aviation space.
“The fund will invest in startups that have the potential to redefine the future of aviation and beyond, seeking pre–Series A, Series A, and Series B funding. These include startups working on cutting-edge technologies and solutions within the aviation sector. The fund will also look to invest in consumer startups that have a touchpoint in the passenger journey, such as travel, lifestyle, hospitality, transportation, etc,” said an Indigo press release.
Indigo has already started speaking with select startups in its focus areas for closing on some initial investment deals. The fund is expected to be fully operational by the end of FY 25. The fund has launched an online presence ‘GoIndigoVentures‘, inviting startups to submit their pitches. The website also details about the fund’s thesis, its investment committee among other pertinent details.
Neetan Chopra, Chief Digital & Information Officer, IndiGo, said, “As IndiGo embarks on this new journey with IndiGo Ventures, we are committed to fostering innovation, giving wings to aspirations, in aviation and beyond. The startups will benefit from IndiGo’s extensive technical expertise and diverse geographical imprint, leading to the development of new products and services.”
In terms of corpus size, the fund will start with an initial investment of ₹30 crore (~$3.57Mn) from Indigo. The same was approved by the company’s board on September 4 of this year.
Indigo will join a steadily growing list of Indian corporate houses, looking to create in-house venture funds for startup investments. While India has seen a meteoric rise in venture capital being raised by startups, almost all of it comes from outside of the country. A major chunk of India’s domestic investor capital still largely goes to more traditional forms of investments, such as public markets, real-estate among others. The trend however, has seen a marked shift, with startups listing on public bourses amid bumper listings.
