IndiGo Ventures has made a strategic equity investment of Rs 10 crore in Sarla Aviation, marking an early step toward building India’s first nationwide air taxi network.

The investment, which was part of Sarla Aviation’s previous funding round led by Accel and Nikhil Kamath, signals a deeper alignment between aircraft manufacturing and airline operations in India’s emerging urban air mobility space.

The partnership aims to address a long-standing gap in India’s mobility ecosystem, the middle-distance segment. While short-distance travel is handled by road and metro systems and long-distance routes by railways and airlines, journeys in the 30–300 km range remain inefficient and time-consuming.

Electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft are being positioned as a solution to this gap. These aircraft are designed to operate quietly, without the need for runways, and at lower costs compared to helicopters, potentially transforming how people move across cities and nearby regions.

Sarla Aviation brings the hardware capability to the partnership, with a hybrid-electric eVTOL platform tailored for Indian conditions. The company has built one of India’s largest private eVTOL demonstrators and is backed by a team with experience across global players such as Lilium, Volocopter, Beta Technologies, and Joby Aviation.

On the other hand, IndiGo contributes operational scale and infrastructure. As India’s largest airline, it operates over 2,000 daily flights across more than 85 airports, offering a strong backbone for future commercial deployment, along with maintenance, distribution, and safety expertise.

The company said the investment goes beyond funding, representing a strategic move to create an aligned OEM-operator ecosystem, something that has not yet existed in India at this scale. Globally, similar models have been seen with airlines like United Airlines investing in Archer Aviation, Delta Air Lines backing Joby Aviation, and American Airlines partnering with Vertical Aerospace.

Adrian Schmidt, Co-founder and CEO of Sarla Aviation, said the partnership marks a turning point for India’s mobility future. He noted that IndiGo’s backing adds credibility and scale to the vision of making air mobility more accessible and efficient for everyday use.

Founded in 2023 by Rakesh Gaonkar and Adrian Schmidt, Sarla Aviation is headquartered in Bengaluru and is named after Sarla Thukral. The company is focused on building advanced aircraft systems for intra- and inter-city travel.

Its flagship programme includes a six-seater electric flying taxi designed to significantly reduce travel time in congested urban centres such as Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, and Pune. The aircraft is being developed with a focus on safety, affordability, and ease of use, with the aim of making air mobility as seamless as app-based ride-hailing services.

As India looks to address growing congestion, rising demand density, and evolving transportation needs, this collaboration could play a key role in shaping the next phase of aviation-led mobility in the country.