Thirty-three funds, ₹31,000 crore. The category turns one.

A year after the first Specialized Investment Fund took money, September delivered the category's clearest set of numbers yet — and, for the first time, a strategy other than hybrid long-short led the inflows.

The AMFI data for August, released in mid-September, showed net inflows into SIFs rising 56.4% month-on-month to ₹7,699 crore (from ₹4,922 crore in July). Total SIF assets reached ₹31,175 crore at the end of August, up 35% from ₹23,177 crore in July; on AMFI's average-assets basis the category grew from ₹20,563 crore to ₹26,447 crore over the same month.

Sources: AMFI data as reported by Cafemutual, 15 September 2026 (inflows; average AUM); month-end assets as reported by Cafemutual, 28 September 2026, and DSIJ, 26 September 2026.

The story inside the total was Equity Ex-Top 100 Long-Short: the strategy drew ₹2,433 crore in August against ₹923 crore in July — a 163.6% jump and nearly a third of all SIF inflows — helped by two new launches, SBI's Magnum and Aditya Birla Sun Life's Apex, which together mobilised ₹1,317 crore. Hybrid long-short still took the most money in absolute terms (₹4,113 crore, up 26.2%) and still holds the bulk of assets: ₹21,390 crore of the ₹31,175 crore sits in hybrid strategies, ₹9,785 crore in equity strategies.

Sources: AMFI data via Cafemutual, 15 September 2026; strategy-wise month-end assets via Cafemutual, 28 September 2026.

September itself brought three funds onto our tracker, two NFOs (Tata's Titanium and Mahindra Manulife's debut), one NFO closing (Edelweiss's third Altiva fund), a SEBI board meeting that rewrote the PMS rulebook with a direct link to SIFs, and the distribution base crossing ten thousand registered SIF distributors. The details are in the sections below.

As of 30 September 2026 our tracker carried 33 live SIFs across 17 AMCs — 11 hybrid long-short, 11 equity long-short, 7 equity ex-top-100, 3 active asset allocation and 1 sector rotation strategies. Three joined during September: SBI's Magnum Equity Ex-Top 100 (first official NAV 2 September) and Aditya Birla Sun Life's Apex Equity Long-Short and Apex Equity Ex-Top 100 (1 September). Official NAVs for every fund, updated each trading day, are on the Fund Universe tracker; the one-page SIF Performance Sheet carries the same official data by strategy.

Source: official AMFI SIF NAV data as of 30 September 2026 (three funds' 30 September NAVs were still awaited from AMFI at publication); launch dates from each fund's allotment record.

This edition shows no fund-level returns. Under SEBI's advertising rules a scheme under six months old may show no past performance, and one between six and twelve months only the simple-annualised six-month return to the previous month-end — the format used on each fund's page. Every SIF is still under a year old, so no fund yet has a one-year figure.

The month's most consequential regulatory event for SIFs happened in a meeting about something else.

At its board meeting on 24 September, SEBI approved the SEBI (Portfolio Managers) Regulations, 2026, replacing the 2020 regulations. Alongside a broad loosening of what portfolio managers may hold — IPOs and primary debt issuance, foreign securities, a slice of unlisted debt — the board created a new route under which portfolio managers can invest clients' money in direct plans of mutual funds, including ETFs, index funds and Specialised Investment Funds, with the minimum ticket size for that route set at ₹25 lakh.

Source: Business Today, 24 September 2026 ("SEBI rewrites PMS rulebook…"); SEBI board meeting of 24 September 2026.

Two other dates on the record. On 21 September the transition SEBI announced in July took effect: the old NISM Series XIII route stopped qualifying new SIF distributors, and Series V-D — the single certification covering both mutual funds and SIFs — became the standard path (existing Series XIII holders remain grandfathered until their certification expires). And on 28 August, disclosed in September, SEBI approved Abakkus Mutual Fund's entry into the category under the brand 'Fokkus', with equity, debt and hybrid strategies planned.

Sources: Cafemutual, 22 September 2026 (certification); Abakkus MF release via Cafemutual, 22 September 2026.

For most of the category's first year the money went to hybrid long-short funds — the balanced, hedged strategies that still hold about two-thirds of SIF assets. In August, for the first time, a different strategy led the inflows. It is worth understanding what an Equity Ex-Top 100 Long-Short fund actually is.

The name is literal. SEBI's SIF framework defines the strategy by what it excludes: the core of the portfolio must sit in companies outside India's 100 largest by market capitalisation — the mid-cap and small-cap universe. The offer documents of the September launches show the shape: SBI's Magnum keeps 65–100% of assets in stocks beyond the top 100, allows large-caps up to 35% purely for liquidity, and can take unhedged short positions of up to 25% of net assets through derivatives. ABSL's two Apex funds carry the same 25% short limit. The short book is what separates this from an ordinary mid- and small-cap mutual fund: the manager can express a negative view on a stock or hedge the portfolio when the segment turns.

Framework and fund facts: SEBI SIF framework as summarised on our What is SIF page; SBI MF KIM and ISID S-33; AMFI portal ISID S-31.

Why did the money move? The flow data offers one reading: the strategy did not exist in volume until this summer — Quant's was the only fund of its kind for months — and August added two launches from household names, which alone raised ₹1,317 crore. New shelf space attracts new money. The category's own assets tell the rest: ₹9,785 crore of the ₹31,175 crore now sits in equity strategies, against ₹21,390 crore in hybrids, so the equity side is growing from a small base.

The counterpoint belongs in the same paragraph. Mid- and small-cap stocks are more volatile and less liquid than the top 100; a short position loses money when the stock rises, and can lose more than the position's size; derivatives add cost and complexity; and every fund in this strategy is less than a year old, so none has been through a full cycle of the segment it invests in. SEBI's advertising rules reflect that youth — no past performance may be shown for a fund's first six months — which is why this edition carries strategy-level flow data and no fund-level return.

What can an investor evaluating the strategy actually examine? The offer document's allocation bands and short limit; the liquidity terms, since several SIFs are interval funds rather than daily-redemption; the expense ratio; the manager's stated process for choosing shorts; and how a concentrated mid- and small-cap exposure would sit inside a portfolio that may already hold plenty of it. Those are questions to work through with a qualified, registered professional. This essay can frame them; it cannot answer them for any individual.

Flow and asset figures: AMFI data via Cafemutual, 15 September 2026; Cafemutual, 28 September 2026. Risk statements are general in nature and drawn from the funds' own offer documents.

Selected from the 93 headlines our newsroom archived between 1 and 30 September — the full, continuously updated record lives on the SIF & markets news hub.