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After receiving last approval from the Securities and Trade Board of India (SEBI) in August final yr, Abakkus Mutual Fund started its funding journey a couple of months in the past. With solely two schemes presently in its bouquet of choices (flexi cap and liquid fund), it has already crossed ₹3,000 crore in belongings underneath administration (AUM).
We spoke to Abakkus Mutual Fund’s CEO Vaiibhavv Chugh about their investing philosophy, expectations from the small and mid caps in 2026, why they consider in putting contrarian bets, and far more.
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Edited Excerpts
Why did the fund home begin its investing journey with these two schemes: a flexi-cap fund and a liquid fund?
Many traders want to park their cash in liquid funds earlier than transferring it to fairness schemes through STP (systematic switch plan). One other well-liked class amongst retail traders is a flexi cap fund, which affords flexibility to put money into shares throughout the market spectrum. That is why we began with these two.
What’s so distinctive about Abakkus that traders ought to contemplate investing of their schemes?
Our funds cowl a big spectrum of shares. We’re the bottom-up inventory pickers and discover good shares on benefit. We’re fairly aligned with our investing philosophy.
Moreover, we’ve an excellent workforce of 25 folks in analysis and funding. We have now fund managers with a median expertise of 18-20 years, whereas analysis analysts have a median expertise of 7-8 years.
What’s so totally different about your investing philosophy?
We focus extra on lively weight — between 62-63%. And we’ve a better tilt in direction of mid- and small-cap shares, as we’ve increased conviction in them. We have a tendency to trace a lot of shares. We actively search for distinctive names in mid- and small-caps.
In 2026, which class of funds ought to retail traders discover — large-cap, mid-cap, small-cap or benchmark index?
A mix of large-cap and small-cap shares will ship good returns. In the meantime, we discover small caps fairly engaging. Expectations for earnings progress of small-cap shares hover round 22% (in accordance with a current report), whereas for big caps, it’s 14 to fifteen%.
The AMFI knowledge for Jan 2026 was launched just lately, exhibiting that inflows into fairness funds fell by 14%. What are your views on the mutual fund trade and traders’ investing behaviour in view of this?
We’re very optimistic about mutual fund investing. At the moment, solely 3% to 4% of our inhabitants invests in mutual funds (5.9 crore distinctive traders exist in Dec 2025), whereas most Indians are nonetheless not part of it. Jagrukta (consciousness) for mutual funds continues to be rising.
In regards to the January knowledge—we knew these numbers can be average solely. Traders lacked readability on many issues. However now (after the India-US commerce deal was introduced), ambiguity is behind us. Traders will once more view Indian markets positively, and I consider FIIs can even return.
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Are you able to clarify how a fund or an investor creates wealth by being contrarian, one among Abakkus’ investing philosophies?
By contrarian, we imply that we’ll purchase a inventory even when it isn’t modern to purchase it. And we’d not be in a rush to promote it, even when two quarters will not be good for that inventory, as long as there aren’t any basic points. So, we’re extra fundamentals-driven. We make investments based mostly on our conviction, even when we’re the one investor in that inventory — this falls underneath the contrarian view.
What recommendation would you give to the kids who’re but to start out investing?
I like to recommend that they first perceive themselves: how a lot danger urge for food have they got, and for the way lengthy do they wish to make investments, and so forth.
And initially, they need to begin with index investing. Progressively, they’ll improve to lively funds. They need to additionally begin understanding portfolio building. They need to keep away from the information which retains floating round and never get slowed down by what others have been doing or saying on social media. They need to merely make investments for the long run.
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This text was taken from MintMoney and will be accessed right here
