The SIF industry has reached an AUM of ₹38,224 crore as of September 30, 2026, gaining traction among investors seeking strategies beyond traditional mutual funds. Launched in April 2025, these funds require a minimum ₹10 lakh investment, with market leaders like Edelweiss AMC capturing significant share.
Specialised Investment Funds (SIFs) have rapidly become a notable segment in the Indian asset management industry, reaching a total asset base of approximately ₹38,224 crore by the end of September 2026. This milestone comes just over a year after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) introduced this category on April 1, 2025.
SIFs were designed to fill a specific gap in the investment market, sitting between traditional mutual funds and Portfolio Management Services (PMS). While mutual funds are generally constrained by strict regulatory limits on asset allocation and strategies, SIFs offer fund managers greater flexibility to employ complex tactics, such as long-short equity strategies and derivative-based hedging. This structure has attracted interest, particularly among high-net-worth individuals, given the entry requirement of ₹10 lakh at the PAN level per asset management company.
Edelweiss AMC currently leads this segment through its Altiva platform, which manages roughly ₹13,221 crore. This accounts for over 34% of the industry’s total assets. The rapid accumulation of funds in this category highlights a growing appetite among sophisticated investors for products that can adapt to market volatility rather than just tracking market indices.
Despite the strong inflows, investors should approach this category with an understanding of its unique risk profile. Unlike standard mutual funds, which are often built for broad market participation, SIFs utilize advanced strategies that can lead to outcomes significantly different from benchmark performance. Because the category is relatively new, having been operational for less than two years, there is a limited track record to assess long-term performance across varied market cycles. Furthermore, the industry is currently concentrated, with the top five players controlling 83% of the total assets, which means investor choice is currently clustered around a few dominant fund houses.
These funds are intended for those who can withstand the risks associated with complex derivative positions and tactical portfolio shifts. Financial advisors generally recommend that investors treat these as tools for specific financial goals—such as hedging or absolute return generation—rather than as core holdings in a simple savings portfolio. Moving forward, the industry is shifting its focus from initial growth to product differentiation, where the effectiveness of a fund’s specific strategy will likely become the primary metric for investor consideration rather than just the assets collected.