The investment comes as Sarvam continues to raise money in its ongoing Series B funding round to expand its AI business.
IndiGo Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of IndiGo, has invested in Bengaluru-based AI startup Sarvam AI as part of its ongoing Series B funding round. The investment strengthens an existing partnership between the airline and the startup as both companies explore the use of artificial intelligence across aviation.
IndiGo and Sarvam have already been working together to deploy AI in areas including passenger services, employee support and operational workflows. The latest investment is expected to deepen that relationship, combining IndiGo’s aviation expertise and scale with Sarvam’s AI capabilities, including voice and agentic AI systems.
“AI is fast becoming a foundational capability for the aviation industry, reshaping customer experience, workforce productivity and operational decision-making. Our partnership with Sarvam gives IndiGo access to cutting-edge AI capabilities, built in India, and tailored to the needs of the market,” said Neetan Chopra, Chief Digital and Information Officer at IndiGo.
Chopra added that combining Sarvam’s technology with IndiGo’s operational expertise could help the airline accelerate innovation while creating value for customers, employees and other stakeholders.
Sarvam Builds AI for Indian Enterprises
Founded in 2023 by Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, Sarvam develops AI models and enterprise technology across text, speech, computer vision and document processing.
The company is also building infrastructure for training and deploying AI models, along with agentic AI systems designed to handle enterprise tasks.
Sarvam’s focus is particularly relevant to India’s growing push for sovereign AI capabilities. The company has been developing models designed for Indian languages and local use cases while also expanding into enterprise applications.
Its ongoing Series B round is intended to support the development of frontier AI models and applications in areas such as agentic AI, coding and cybersecurity. Sarvam also plans to invest in computing infrastructure and expand its enterprise deployments.
Sarvam’s $234 Million Series B
In June, Sarvam announced the first close of its Series B funding round at $234 million, valuing the company at a post-money valuation of $1.5 billion.
HCLTech and Bessemer Venture Partners were among the investors in that round, alongside existing backers Khosla Ventures and Peak XV Partners.
The latest fundraising represents a significant step up from Sarvam’s $41 million Series A round announced in December 2023. The Series A was led by Lightspeed, with participation from Peak XV Partners and Khosla Ventures.
The Series B funding gives Sarvam additional resources to expand its AI models, computing infrastructure, and commercial deployments at a time when Indian businesses are increasing their investment in enterprise AI.
Why IndiGo and Sarvam Are Working Together
Aviation is an industry where AI can potentially have an impact across a large number of customer and operational touchpoints.
Airlines handle millions of passenger interactions while managing complex operations involving flight schedules, airport processes, customer support, employees, and time-sensitive decisions. This makes the sector a potential testing ground for enterprise AI systems that need to operate at scale.
Pratyush Kumar, co-founder of Sarvam, said IndiGo’s operational scale provides an important environment for developing practical AI applications.
“Aviation is a powerful setting for enterprise AI because it combines millions of customer interactions with complex, time-sensitive operations,” Kumar said.
He added that IndiGo’s domain expertise and scale could help Sarvam identify areas where AI can deliver practical value and develop systems that can operate reliably in real-world environments.
The partnership could therefore extend beyond simply deploying existing AI tools. The two companies can potentially use IndiGo’s operational environment to develop and test AI applications specifically designed for aviation.
IndiGo Ventures Expands Its Startup Investments
The Sarvam investment is part of IndiGo Ventures’ broader strategy of backing technologies that could have applications across aviation, mobility and travel.
IndiGo Ventures received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India in 2024 to establish an Alternative Investment Fund with a corpus of Rs 600 crore, including a green-shoe option of Rs 300 crore.
The venture arm has already invested in other aviation-focused technology companies.
It invested Rs 10 crore in Bengaluru-based Sarla Aviation, which is developing electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft with the potential to support future air-taxi services.
The investment in Sarvam gives IndiGo Ventures exposure to a different part of the aviation technology ecosystem, with AI potentially influencing everything from customer interactions and employee productivity to operational decision-making.
A Bigger Bet on India’s AI Ecosystem
The investment also reflects the growing interest among large Indian companies in partnering with domestic AI startups rather than relying entirely on global technology providers.
For Sarvam, the partnership provides access to one of India’s largest airlines and a complex, high-volume operating environment. For IndiGo, it offers a closer relationship with an Indian AI company developing models and systems for local enterprise use.
As Sarvam continues its Series B fundraising and expands its AI capabilities, the IndiGo partnership could become an important test case for how sovereign AI technology is deployed in large-scale Indian businesses.
The immediate focus is aviation, but the technology being developed through the partnership could have applications across other industries that deal with large volumes of customers, employees, and time-sensitive operations.
