India’s first woman AMC founder wants to build a mutual fund empire from Tier-2 India

India’s mutual fund landscape, long dominated by urban-centric players and male leadership, is getting a shake-up from Bharat and by a woman. Madhu Lunawat, the country’s first woman founder of a mutual fund, is steering The Wealth Company Asset Management towards the hinterland, betting that the next wave of India’s investing class will rise from towns like Modinagar, Jamnagar and Raipur.

Backed by the Pantomath Group, which Lunawat co-founded in 2013 along with her husband Mahavir, the AMC received its mutual fund license on July 18 and promptly filed four scheme documents across equity and debt—among them, a Flexi Cap Fund likely to be its flagship launch.

“There are very few [women] in this space. It’s time for more of us to be at the table,” said Lunawat in an interview with Moneycontrol. Born into a lower-middle-class family in Assam and trained as a chartered accountant, she cut her teeth at firms like Infosys and Edelweiss before launching Pantomath with co-founder Mahavir Lunawat. The focus from day one: look beyond the metros.

Back to the roots
“We didn’t start in Tier 1 cities. We started in places no one was talking about back then,” she said. That regional focus led to the launch of the Bharat Value Fund, an AIF Category II vehicle in 2022, which now manages around ₹10,000 crore in assets. “Promoters from Neemrana or Rajkot shouldn’t have to spend 8-10 months in Mumbai chasing capital,” Lunawat said. “Their job is to run their business.”

Now, The Wealth Company AMC is carrying that same thesis into retail fund investing by building distribution muscle where financial literacy and advice remain low. The AMC has taken a “distributor-first” approach, focusing on training and certifying investment advisors across smaller towns. “Mutual fund penetration in India is just 6%,” Lunawat said. “DIY investors earn 40% less than institutional investors. Without guidance, people fall prey to biases and herd behaviour.”

Distributor at the center
That education-first approach started even before the fund received regulatory approval. “We began offering training courses for distributors before we got our license,” she added. “It’s not about just selling products—it’s about creating awareness and trust.”

The fund house has kicked off by initiating education programs for distributors. As part of this, it has launched a 15-week Distributor Awareness Programme. The first batch, starting on August 6th, will train 5,000 distributors, with plans for at least three batches this financial year. Per distributor, the free of cost programme is at a budget of Rs 40,000 per person.

The programme includes certification for SEBI’s new SIF (Special Investment Fund) guidelines and an International Wealth Management Course in association with Moody’s. The goal is to reach out to distributors across the country. “There was a clear need for dedicated training because SIF is a new regulation. Generally, these courses are taken up by distributors from B-30 locations who need more support and handholding. That’s why we’re also adding personality development and sales training to make it a more holistic programme,” she explained.

With trust, we win
Lunawat says trust, in fact, is core to her philosophy, and a value she believes will resonate with first-time investors.

With an existing AIF and PMS platform already in place, the AMC is also eyeing SIFs—SEBI’s latest product innovation—as the next frontier. “First you start with mutual funds, then PMS, and then SIF or AIF. You grow with us.”

By building an ecosystem that spans the investing spectrum, Lunawat hopes to turn The Wealth Company into a full-stack asset manager—but one grounded in India’s grassroots.

“Equity culture was non-existent in these towns. We’ve built it from the ground up,” she said. “And now we’re just getting started.”