Helios Mutual Fund, Zerodha Mutual Fund and Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund, which launched around the same time or later, have built significantly larger asset bases despite lacking NJ’s distributor muscle. Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund had assets under management (AUM) of ₹32,115 crore as of December-end, while Zerodha Mutual Fund had ₹9,969 crore.
The contrast becomes sharper when disclosures are examined. About 80% of NJ Mutual Fund’s AUM came from its sponsor, NJ India Invest, its distributor arm, as of March 2025, underscoring the fund house’s dependence on a single channel.
“Given the distribution strength, in a four-year period, the assets would have been on the lower side,” said Srikanth Meenakshi, founder at Primeinvestor, a mutual fund research platform.
In several cases, flows into a new asset management company are driven not just by distribution but by a fund manager or chief investment officer (CIO) with a strong track record.
Samir Arora, for instance, built credibility through his alternates business before expanding into mutual funds, helping attract early investor interest. A similar trajectory is seen with Sunil Singhania, who first established a track record in alternates before entering the mutual fund space.
In NJ Mutual Fund’s case, however, the investment leadership lacks such a prior fund management record. Nirmay Choksi, the CIO is on his first stint on the fund management side. The fund house also saw early leadership churn, with Anand Shah, a well-known industry executive appointed as chief executive officer (CEO), exiting after a little over a year. The current CEO is Vineet Nayyar.
Organic route
Unlike some of its peers, NJ Mutual Fund chose to build its business entirely from scratch.
It did not acquire an existing asset management company, unlike Navi Mutual Fund and WhiteOak Capital, which received an initial AUM boost through the acquisition of Essel Mutual Fund and Yes Bank Mutual Fund, respectively.
“NJ built its business organically, choosing not to acquire an existing asset management company. As a result, its products are largely sold only through its own captive distribution network, with limited interest from external distributors,” said a large distributor, requesting anonymity.
For distributors not empanelled with NJ India Invest, the absence of strong performance or a long track record reduces the incentive to recommend NJ Mutual Fund’s products, the distributor added.
Quant niche
NJ Mutual Fund follows a rule-based, quantitative fund management style that relies on predefined parameters such as momentum, return on capital employed (ROCE) and volatility to filter stocks.
“A quant-based fund management style is very niche and usually does not become a part of an investor’s core portfolio. It is added for diversification, which is also why NJ Mutual Fund is not able to collect huge assets,” said a mutual fund executive from another asset management company.
An NJ Mutual Fund spokesperson said the AMC is a wholly owned subsidiary of NJ Wealth and is naturally leveraging its distribution network.
“But we are not enforcing our distributors to just sell our products. We are pitching our schemes as a complement to investors’ overall active fund portfolios, positioning them as genuine diversification opportunities,” the spokesperson said.
Limited lineup
Another factor weighing on asset growth is NJ Mutual Fund’s limited product lineup. While many fund houses launch multiple schemes to gather assets, NJ Mutual Fund has stayed restrained, offering only five schemes. One of these is a liquid fund designed to facilitate systematic withdrawal plans (SWPs) into its flexicap fund.
“We are not launching multiple schemes and do not intend to roll out a myriad of products merely to garner AUM without prioritizing customer centricity,” the NJ spokesperson said.
However, fewer schemes alone do not necessarily limit scale. PPFAS Mutual Fund also runs a limited lineup, but its flagship flexicap fund alone manages about ₹1.3 trillion and has delivered a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.72% since inception, compared with a benchmark return of 15.06%.
NJ Mutual Fund’s performance has been mixed. Its flexicap fund has delivered a CAGR of 15.92% since inception in September 2023, below the benchmark return of 17%. Its balanced advantage fund has performed better, posting a three-year CAGR of 12.83%, compared with the benchmark return of 10.98%.
Ultimately, investors and distributors closely watch whether a fund house is being pushed primarily through captive channels.
In FY25, NJ India Invest recorded mutual fund inflows of ₹26,467 crore across the industry. Of this, only 2.8% went into NJ Mutual Fund, indicating an open-architecture approach. By comparison, State Bank of India, the country’s largest mutual fund distributor, saw inflows of ₹27,061 crore in FY25, of which 96% went into SBI Mutual Fund.
India remains heavily reliant on distribution. The share of direct plans in total SIP AUM has risen from 12% in March 2020 to 21% in March 2025, according to the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), but the majority of inflows still come through distributors.