Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal's Navi MF to introduce passive funds

Sachin Bansal’s Navi Mutual Fund (MF) is ready to initiate its first few mutual fund schemes in the next few months. Sachin has acquired Essel Mutual Fund from the Subhash Chandra owned Essel Group in February and renamed it. It is a part of Sachin’s Navi Group, which offers digital personal loans, home loans, and health insurance. This group also includes a multi-state microfinance non-banking financial company, which has applied for a universal banking license.

Navi Mutual Fund has an average asset of 698 crores in the last quarter of FY21, according to the statistics from the Association of Mutual Funds in India. This money is primarily the legacy assets of Essel Mutual Fund.

Saurabh Jain, managing director, and CEO, Navi Mutual Fund, the new fund house will focus on reducing the cost of investments for investors with the help of technology.

Saurabh, states, “Investor-first approach and technology are the core strengths of Navi, and we will leverage this to the fullest to drive value for our investors.”

Navi is planning to launch a Nifty 50 Index fund in the coming months, subject to Sebi approvals.

“As we already have 10 active equity and debt schemes, the immediate focus is to add passive funds to the mix," adds Saurabh.

The fund house will bring in people with a varied set of skills in the fintech space and not just those with asset management backgrounds. The headquarters of Navi Mutual Fund will be moving to Bengaluru from its current base in Mumbai to be closer to the group headquarters. This will make it the first Bengaluru-headquartered Asset Management Company (AMC), an indicator of the growing role of tech companies and clusters in traditional finance. Navi AMC limited aims to provide a seamless experience to manage wealth.