Radhika Gupta, MD and CEO, Edelweiss Mutual Fund | Photo credit: Manoej Paateel
The asset management firm is looking to expand into smaller towns and cities where a growing number of investors are looking to flow their savings into Indian equities, CEO Radhika Gupta said in an interview with Bloomberg.
“There are amazing prosperity stories coming out of Tier 2, Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities in India,” said Gupta, adding that the company is looking beyond the top 60 business cities. “Some of these cities are now very, very meaningful in terms of asset base.”
When the company opens a new outlet in a Tier 3 city, the outlet could break even within 18 to 24 months, she said.
Edelweiss’ push into smaller cities is part of the country’s financial boom, which has given rise to a growing equity culture, with novice investors choosing to enter the stock markets rather than buying traditional fixed income products.
And while the number of mutual fund investors has doubled in the past five years, the opportunity remains vast: Only about 10 percent of the country has exposure to stocks, bonds or mutual funds, according to a survey released earlier this year by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India.
The company will face stiff competition from established fund houses, backed by major lenders such as HDFC Bank Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd. and State Bank of India, which run large distribution networks reaching small towns and villages.
Edelweiss started a few years ago with 20 locations, mainly in major cities, and plans to expand its asset management business to 70 locations next year and then to at least 100 locations in the coming years.
The expansion is part of the asset manager’s ambitious growth plans for the coming years. It also sold a 15 percent stake to WestBridge Capital for ₹450 crore ($50 million) in August in a rare private equity transaction in the mutual fund industry.
“We have received SEBI approval for the transaction and we expect to complete it very, very soon. I think it is a good step towards eventually becoming a listed company,” Gupta said, without specifying a timeline.
The Indian mutual fund industry has been seeing a flurry of listings lately, with ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co.’s IPO book on the books. opens on Thursday for major investors. Canara Robeco Asset Management Co. was listed in October, while State Bank of India and Amundi SA plan to tap the public market next year to list SBI Funds Management Ltd.
Gupta sees about 12 to 15 listed asset managers in India over time.
“It’s a company that lends itself very well to the public markets,” she said, pointing to its stable model, reliable earnings growth and strong investor understanding as key reasons.
The company’s growth plans are underpinned by the view that Indian companies are on the cusp of an earnings revival that will drive Indian markets to outperform their global peers next year.
“It will be consumption-driven growth,” Edelweiss Chief Investment Officer Trideep Bhattacharya said in the same interview.
Indian stocks have underperformed emerging markets this year by the most in decades.
Edelweiss is also bullish on Specialized Investment Funds, a new asset class for asset managers that allows mutual funds to make hedge fund-like bets, executives said.
The new asset class could encourage newer firms to acquire asset management licenses in India, Gupta said, adding that the country is likely to have more than 100 asset managers by the end of the decade.
More stories like this are available at bloomberg.com
Published on December 10, 2025
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