Bandhan Asset Management Company has confirmed its entry into India's Specialised Investment Fund (SIF) category, launching a dedicated platform called "Arudha SIF." The move brings one of India's larger fund houses — which services over 3.5 million folios across more than 800 locations — into a segment that has been steadily filling up with entrants since SEBI's SIF framework took effect in April 2025.
Arudha SIF is designed to sit within Bandhan's broader strategy of offering more sophisticated, risk-managed portfolio solutions inside the regulated mutual fund ecosystem, rather than pushing clients toward unregulated or higher-ticket alternatives. The platform will be built to support multiple strategies across equity, hybrid and debt categories over time, consistent with the three broad buckets permitted under SEBI's SIF rules.
What sets SIFs apart As with other SIF platforms, Arudha will operate under a structure that allows more flexibility than a conventional mutual fund:
A minimum investment of ₹10 lakh per PAN across all Arudha SIF strategies (reduced to ₹1 lakh for accredited investors)
The ability to take unhedged short positions of up to 25% of the portfolio through derivatives
Access to interval and closed-ended structures, in addition to open-ended ones, depending on the strategy
Bandhan's entry follows those of a growing list of AMCs — including Edelweiss, SBI, Aditya Birla Sun Life and ICICI Prudential — that had already launched or announced SIF platforms through the second half of 2025. Industry watchers note that Bandhan's decision to launch its first Arudha product as a hybrid, rather than a pure equity, long-short fund suggests a deliberate choice to lead with a lower-volatility offering aimed at building initial investor comfort with the category.
Commenting on the broader rationale for entering the space, Bandhan AMC's leadership has framed SIFs as addressing a structural gap in the Indian market — between the standardised, diversification-capped world of mutual funds and the high-ticket, less-regulated world of PMS and AIFs. The AMC has signalled that its first Arudha product, an interval hybrid long-short fund, is expected to open for subscription in early January 2026, with further strategies — including a pure equity long-short fund — to follow later in the year.
Distributors expect Bandhan's scale and existing retail and HNI distribution network to give Arudha SIF a meaningful head start in reaching investors, relative to smaller or newer entrants into the category.