IndiGo has invested ₹10 crore in Bengaluru-based Sarla Aviation through its venture arm, IndiGo Ventures. This is IndiGo’s first direct investment in an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) startup, a category focused on building electric air taxis for short-distance travel. The move shows the airline’s early interest in urban air mobility, where flying vehicles could help reduce travel time in crowded cities.
Notably, eVTOL aircraft, commonly referred to as air taxis, are designed to take off and land vertically like helicopters but operate using electric propulsion systems. Unlike traditional aircraft, they do not require long runways and are being developed globally as a potential solution to urban congestion and inefficient short-distance travel.
Sarla Aviation was founded in 2023 and is working on developing multi-passenger electric aircraft customized for urban and intercity mobility in India. The startup is focusing on designing aircraft that can carry around 6 passengers and operate on short routes, typically between 30 km and 300 km. The core idea is to significantly reduce travel time on routes where road traffic makes journeys slow and unpredictable. In dense metropolitan regions, commutes that take over an hour by road could potentially be completed in under 15-30 minutes through air taxi services, depending on route design and air traffic systems.
The company is also working on building a broader ecosystem beyond just aircraft manufacturing. Its long-term plan includes developing infrastructure like vertiports, specialized take-off and landing hubs for electric aircraft, along with charging systems, maintenance networks, and integration points with existing transportation systems. Sarla Aviation has also indicated ambitions for large-scale manufacturing, including plans for a dedicated production facility in the country with an investment projected in the range of over ₹1,000 crore. The goal is to eventually scale production capacity to around 1,000 aircraft per year in the coming years.
For IndiGo, this investment is not just financial but strategic. The airline operates one of the largest domestic aviation networks in India and is increasingly looking at ways to expand its role beyond airport-to-airport connectivity. And urban air mobility represents a potential extension of its core business, especially in addressing the ‘first-mile and last-mile’ problem in aviation.
The move becomes notable since IndiGo’s venture arm, IndiGo Ventures, is a relatively new corporate investment platform created to support early-stage companies working in aviation, aerospace, and mobility technologies. With a fund size estimated in the range of several hundred crore rupees, it is expected to back startups that can influence the next phase of aviation innovation.
Earlier in January 2025, Sarla Aviation had raised around $10 million as part of its Series A1 funding round led by Accel and Nikhil Kamath, with participation from prominent Indian startup founders and angel investors, including Binny Bansal, Sriharsha Majety, and others.