For an Indian residing in Dubai, London or Singapore, investing in India’s mutual fund market can contain greater than merely selecting a fund. There are questions round eligibility, documentation, forex, taxation and, which schemes to select from a market that has grown to hundreds of choices.
The Wealth Firm is trying to simplify that course of with a brand new fund primarily based in GIFT Metropolis.
The corporate has launched The Wealth Firm IFSC FoF, an open-ended Class III Various Funding Fund (AIF) at GIFT Metropolis Worldwide Monetary Companies Centre (IFSC), which can permit eligible non-resident traders, together with NRIs, to realize publicity to a portfolio of Indian mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by way of a single, US-dollar-denominated funding construction.
The fund is managed by Wealth Firm Asset Administration Pvt Ltd’s IFSC department, a fund administration entity registered with the Worldwide Monetary Companies Centres Authority (IFSCA).
For eligible abroad traders, the proposition is actually: as an alternative of choosing and investing in a number of Indian mutual fund schemes themselves, they’ll spend money on one professionally managed fund-of-funds that makes these allocation choices for them.
Why is that this related now?
India’s mutual fund trade has grown dramatically over the previous decade.
Belongings below administration (AUM) of the Indian mutual fund trade stood at ₹82.22 lakh crore as of June 30, 2026, in contrast with ₹13.81 lakh crore a decade earlier — virtually a six-fold improve. Month-to-month systematic funding plan (SIP) contributions stood at ₹31,781 crore in June 2026, in line with the Affiliation of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).
The trade has additionally expanded to just about 28 crore investor folios, highlighting how deeply mutual funds have penetrated the home financial savings market.
However for an abroad investor, the problem is completely different.
India’s mutual fund market has turn out to be massive sufficient that the issue is now not merely discovering funding alternatives. It’s deciding which fund managers, classes and techniques to make use of and when to alter these allocations.
The Wealth Firm is positioning its FoF as an answer to that downside.
How does the brand new fund work?
The Wealth Firm IFSC FoF is not going to ask an investor to select particular person Indian mutual funds straight.
As an alternative, the fund itself will make investments throughout the broader mutual fund and ETF universe, primarily based on its funding technique.
Based on the corporate, its choice course of will think about components resembling historic efficiency, danger measures, quantitative parameters, relative efficiency and the fund supervisor’s forward-looking positioning.
The portfolio can embrace diversified fairness funds, sectoral methods, fixed-income funds, hybrid funds, gold and silver ETFs, index methods and Specialised Funding Funds (SIFs), topic to the fund’s mandate.
In impact, the investor will get one portfolio, whereas the fund supervisor makes the underlying choice and allocation choices.
“India’s development has stopped being a narrative that Indians solely watch from overseas. For a lot of, it’s changing into a chance they need to take part in,” stated Madhu Lunawat, Founder, The Wealth Firm.
“GIFT Metropolis provides us the power to construct that bridge. We would like an Indian residing abroad to consider India as a part of their long-term wealth portfolio and never as a market that’s troublesome to entry from the place they dwell,” she stated.
What’s the benefit of investing by way of GIFT Metropolis?
One of many key options of the brand new construction is that the fund is denominated in US {dollars}.
For an NRI incomes and holding wealth in {dollars}, this will make the funding construction simpler to grasp and handle than investing straight in rupee-denominated Indian merchandise.
GIFT Metropolis was created as India’s Worldwide Monetary Companies Centre and operates below the regulatory framework of IFSCA. The target is to offer a world financial-services ecosystem inside India, together with funding and fund-management constructions aimed toward world traders.
The dimensions of the monetary centre has been rising. IFSCA’s knowledge reveals that cumulative commitments raised by funds within the IFSC had crossed $39 billion as of March 2026.
GIFT Metropolis has additionally more and more been positioned as a route for non-resident capital and world traders to entry Indian and worldwide funding alternatives.
Who can make investments?
The fund shouldn’t be open to each NRI or each abroad Indian.
Based on The Wealth Firm, it’s supposed for eligible NRIs, world household workplaces, institutional traders, accredited traders and HNIs/UHNIs.
Resident Indians can’t spend money on the fund.
The fund additionally presently excludes traders resident within the US and Canada, in addition to traders from jurisdictions restricted below relevant Monetary Motion Job Drive (FATF) guidelines.
That is significantly related for NRIs as a result of US- and Canada-based traders face extra regulatory and tax concerns when investing in Indian funding merchandise.
Does an NRI must spend money on particular person mutual funds?
No. That is without doubt one of the key variations between this construction and easily shopping for Indian mutual funds straight.
An investor within the FoF buys models of the fund-of-funds, whereas the FoF invests within the underlying mutual funds and ETFs.
This implies the investor is outsourcing the underlying fund-selection and allocation choice to the fund supervisor.
For an NRI who needs a diversified India allocation however doesn’t need to observe tons of or hundreds of mutual fund schemes, that might be the primary attraction.
Unmesh Kulkarni, Managing Director – Group Product Head, The Wealth Firm, stated the problem for an abroad investor shouldn’t be essentially a scarcity of curiosity in India however the complexity of selecting amongst a lot of schemes.
“The issue for a non-resident investor is not a scarcity of conviction about India. It’s the distance between conviction and execution,” Kulkarni stated.
“There are greater than 1,600 schemes to select from, completely different market cycles and really completely different funding kinds. Our job is to do this choice and rebalancing inside a construction that is sensible for an abroad investor,” he stated.
What about tax for NRIs?
That is prone to be one of the vital necessary concerns for potential traders.
The Wealth Firm says the fund is structured as an IFSC-based Class III AIF and is anticipated to qualify as a “Specified Fund” below the relevant provisions of the Earnings-tax Act, 2025, topic to assembly the prescribed situations.
Below the tax framework cited by the corporate, specified earnings of a qualifying fund attributable to eligible non-resident unit holders might obtain exemption from Indian earnings tax, topic to the relevant situations.
The corporate additionally says eligible non-resident traders might profit from tax and filing-related exemptions in India in sure circumstances.
Nonetheless, NRIs mustn’t assume that investing by way of GIFT Metropolis robotically makes their funding tax-free.
The tax remedy is dependent upon the fund assembly the related statutory situations and on the person investor’s circumstances. Extra importantly, the investor’s nation of residence might tax the earnings or good points even when India doesn’t.
An NRI residing within the UAE, for instance, can have a special tax place from somebody residing within the UK, Singapore or Australia.
Buyers ought to subsequently acquire impartial tax recommendation earlier than investing, together with recommendation on native taxation and the related Double Taxation Avoidance Settlement (DTAA).
Is that this the identical as shopping for a mutual fund?
No.
That is an Various Funding Fund, not a traditional Indian mutual fund.
The underlying portfolio might comprise Indian mutual funds and ETFs, however the investor is buying models of the Class III AIF.
That distinction issues as a result of AIFs have a special regulatory and charge construction from mutual funds and are typically designed for extra refined traders.
The investor can also be taking up an extra layer of fund-management construction: fairly than investing straight in a mutual fund, the investor invests within the FoF, which then invests in underlying funds.
Subsequently, traders ought to look past the tax profit and greenback denomination and look at the fund’s charges, bills, liquidity, funding mandate, underlying funds and efficiency earlier than investing.
Why GIFT Metropolis is changing into necessary for rich Indians overseas
The brand new fund is a component of a bigger push to make GIFT Metropolis a channel for worldwide capital.
Earlier this 12 months, GIFT Metropolis issued its first licence for a household funding fund, one other step in direction of creating constructions that permit rich households to handle investments from India’s IFSC. Reuters reported in April that the primary household funding fund licence had been granted by GIFT Metropolis’s regulator.
The IFSC has additionally been attracting fund managers and different monetary establishments. IFSCA’s March 2026 knowledge confirmed greater than $39 billion in cumulative commitments raised by funds working within the IFSC.
For India, the broader goal is to create a monetary centre that may serve world traders with out them having to route each funding exercise by way of abroad monetary centres.
For NRIs, this might finally imply extra funding merchandise that mix global-currency constructions with publicity to Indian property.
What does this imply for an NRI investor?
The brand new fund is actually providing three issues:
Greenback denomination: The funding is structured in US {dollars}, which can make it extra handy for traders whose wealth is held in overseas forex.
Skilled choice: As an alternative of selecting from India’s enormous mutual fund universe, traders get a portfolio chosen and managed by the fund supervisor.
GIFT Metropolis construction: The fund relies in India’s IFSC and is particularly designed for eligible non-resident and world traders.
However these advantages don’t remove funding danger.
The underlying portfolio is in the end uncovered to Indian monetary markets, and the worth of the funding can rise or fall with fairness, debt, commodity and different markets relying on the allocation. Skilled fund choice additionally doesn’t assure higher returns.
