Can Jio BlackRock turn scale into smart returns?
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Earlier this month, one of India's most anticipated mutual fund ventures finally took off. Jio BlackRock Asset Management, an equal joint venture between Jio Financial Services and global investment giant BlackRock, announced that it had mobilized ₹ 17,800 crore through the new fund offers (NFOs) of its first three schemes. All three are debt-oriented funds, a category where institutional investors typically account for about 80% of assets under management (AUM).
Earlier this month, one of India's most anticipated mutual fund ventures finally took off. Jio BlackRock Asset Management, an equal joint venture between Jio Financial Services and global investment giant BlackRock, announced that it had mobilized ₹ 17,800 crore through the new fund offers (NFOs) of its first three schemes. All three are debt-oriented funds, a category where institutional investors typically account for about 80% of assets under management (AUM).
It's a start. The real test lies ahead: whether the two heavyweight promoters can scale operations in line with their ambitions, and disrupt India's mutual fund industry, as they've pledged. That promise is partly what underpins the premium valuation Mukesh Ambani's Jio Financial Services currently enjoys.
In industry terms, the start itself is something. Based on June-quarter data, Jio BlackRock has, in one stroke, entered the ranks of the top 30 fund houses in India, placing 29th out of 47 by AUM. It's a highly top-heavy industry: the top 10 asset managers account for 77% of the industry's ₹ 72.3 trillion in assets. Jio BlackRock aims to climb that list quickly, with Ambani's vast telecom footprint seen as a critical lever.
But in mutual funds, size is only half the story. Performance matters just as much. Take equity schemes: over the five years ended 8 July 2025, about 57% of the 296 equity funds beat their benchmarks—meaning 43% didn't. Only around a third managed to outperform by more than 2 percentage points. A similar pattern holds in debt funds. Beyond the metros
Jio BlackRock has laid out a plan to draw new investors into the mutual fund fold, leveraging the strengths of both its parents. For Ambani, that means tapping into his telecom user base. As of May 2025, Reliance Jio had 475 million mobile subscribers, the largest among Indian operators, as per the telecom regulator. The goal: nudge those users to invest in Jio BlackRock products via Jio's finance app. A key selling point will be BlackRock's proprietary investment and risk-management technology.
The timing is opportune. Over the past decade or so, mutual funds have acquired a more diversified geographic representation. As of September 2017, the top 35 cities accounted for about 90% of the industry's assets. In an industry that grew nearly four times in AUMs as of March 2025, their share is down to about 70%. Smaller cities and towns are gaining in share, and Jio's telecom base is squarely in these expanding spaces. Longer SIPs
The fund house aims to convince them to entrust it with their mutual fund investments, and increasingly invest via its finance app that it places on their mobile phones. It is even reportedly looking at ticket sizes of ₹ 500 per month. The post-pandemic period saw a coming together of investing apps, a booming stock market and homebound Indians embracing equity investing. Also Read | How India's ₹ 250 SIP plan failed to find traction
Some of it is hot money that has not seen a bear market. But a lot of it is also stable money, indicating a maturing of the Indian equity investor. This is reflected in investments via systematic investment plans (SIPs), which instil a long-term investing habit and end up buying more during market dips. As of March 2025, SIPs accounted for about one-fifth of the industry's AUMs. As of March 2020, only about 4% of SIP money had a holding period of more than 5 years. This increased to 33% as of March 2025. Tall expectations
For Ambani, the mutual fund venture is one of the several roads towards a substantive presence in financial services. The broader push is housed under Jio Financial Services, positioned as a sum-of-parts play. Listed in August 2023, the company has a market capitalization of ₹ 2.03 trillion, about 100 times its FY25 revenue of ₹ 2,079 crore.
That sky-high market cap-to-revenue ratio reflects investor expectations of rapid scale and broad expansion across financial services. After its listing, Jio Financial's stock initially gained but later lost ground amid delays in operational rollouts—including at Jio BlackRock. The launch of the first three schemes sparked a share price rebound.
Still, it's just the first of many milestones Jio Financial must hit to justify those lofty expectations.
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