Vishal Sananghavi and Venkatesh Mudragalla, founders of Indian startup Jeh Aerospace, have front row seats in the commercial aircraft sector and its growing production bottleneck.
The two former TATA Group executives spent nearly 20 years in different positions in the company and worked on projects that included participation from global aerospace companies such as Boeing, Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin.
The pair, currently armed with $11 million in Series A funding, is working to alleviate global supply chain bottlenecks by expanding production of aero engines and aero-structured metallic components for sale to US-based tier 1 suppliers working with manufacturers of commercial aircraft such as Airbus and Boeing.
And they will help India become a destination for manufacturing aerospace components in the process.
“Tatas unlocked the possibilities of India for these big OEMs: Boeing, Airbus, Sikorsky and GE. [General Electric]Sanghavi, CEO of Jeh, said:
Headquartered in Atlanta to improve access to our US customer base, Jeh Aerospace has a 60,000-square-foot software-based Precision Manufacturing facility in the south Indian city of Hyderabad. Three years ago, the startup combined precision machinery, robotics and IoT devices to reduce product referral lead times to 15 days from the industry’s traditional 15-week timeline.
Jeh Aerospace’s software-defined manufacturing approach will help you deliver predictability and dynamic scheduling, allowing you to provide a consistent supply to your customers without compromising on quality, Sanghavi said.
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And it appears that VCS and strategic investors are interested in Jeh Aerospace’s pitch.
The Series A round was led by elevation capital, along with participation from general catalysts. With the injection of the new capital, Jeh Aerospace has raised a total of $15 million from the institutional venture capital firms. The VC’s fresh funding comes less than a month after the startup received a private strategic investment from Indigo Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Career Indigo in India.
Elevation Capital principal Ashley Eyenger said the company has “created a truly differentiated approach to aerospace manufacturing.”
Aircraft production bottlenecks
Global air traffic demand rose year-on-year in 2024, 3.8% higher than the 2019 level, according to data from the International Air Transport Association released earlier this year.
The rebound spurred airlines to expand their fleets and pushed up orders as noted in a recent report, despite the industry tackling talent and production bottlenecks. According to McKinsey, Tier 1 suppliers are facing expansion lead times when the commercial aircraft backlog reaches nearly 15,700 units.
The founders of Jeh Aerospace believe that using technology to scale production of metallic components for aero engines and aerostructures will remove that bottleneck. That premise shaping how former Chief Operating Officers of Tata Boeing Aerospace Sanghavi and Mudragalla built a 100-person workforce, advisor team and business model.
Instead of working directly with OEMs such as Airbus and Boeing, Jeh Aerospace has deliberately decided to tap on Tier 1 and Tier 2 manufacturers, Sanghavi told TechCrunch, adding that the group will win between 60% and 70% of the aircraft.
The startup currently has 60 paid customers, including Vermont-based GS Precision and Ohio Headquarted Rhaero. Sanghavi said each of these customers is “high-priced, expensive Arr customers” and could become a large account in the next 1-2 years.
“What we believe is to work with fewer, but better customers, and not have a business relationship, but a much deeper and meaningful relationship. So we’re very focused on not having too many customers,” he said. “The business doesn’t need too many customers because it allows you to actually scale customers very quickly and very quickly.”
The company has also brought together an advisory team with deep connections with commercial aircraft OEMs. The startup counts former Boeing India Platish (PRAT) Kumar president and former CEO of Airbus India and managing director Dwarakasrinivasan among his early advisors and supporters.
Jeh Aerospace has brought prominent manufacturing and economic advances in his short life.
Since the $2.75 million seed round last January, Jeh Aerospace says it has delivered over 100,000 flight-critical components and tools on time. The startup also has more than 250,000 hours of mechanical capacity per year.
In last fiscal year, the startup reached $6 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and achieved profitability after tax. Sanghavi told TechCrunch that it projected a triple to four-fold increase in ARR this year, and boasted a $100 million purchase order.
The company plans to expand its manufacturing and testing capabilities by using its new $11 million capital to invest in next-generation digital production technologies, Sanghavi said.
The co-founder of Jeh Aerospace sees an opportunity to bring more local manufacturing to India and strengthen the country’s position on the world’s aerospace maps, as well as its recent emergence as a hub for iPhone production.
India is already growing in aerospace manufacturing, with Airbus raising $1.4 billion worth of components from the country annually, covering $2 billion by 2030. Boeing aims to spend $1.3 billion a year, and in 2023, in Bengal, it announced plans to invest $200 million in Bengal’s new engineering and technology centre. Component Manufacturing – gap companies like Jeh Aerospace want to fill.
While few Indian startups operate in the manufacturing of aerospace components, the sector includes players like JJG Aero. Sanghavi declined to comment specifically on JJG, noting that his startup is seeing major competition between US-based Tier-2 suppliers.
