India Whizdom Fund — Kotak Alternate Asset Managers | wisefolio

India Whizdom Fund

Private equity style investment in public markets

Managed by Kotak Alternate Asset Managers

IN/AIF3/16-17/0217Cat III

Complex or leveraged strategies — long-short, hedge-fund-style and quant funds. Often open-ended, within SEBI leverage limits.

Overview

About

India Whizdom Fund (IWF) (IN/AIF3/16-17/0217) is a SEBI-registered Category III AIF managed by Kotak Investment Advisors Limited (KIAL, now Kotak Alternate Asset Managers Limited / KAAML). IWF is the maiden fund of Kotak Listed Strategies — a dedicated PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity) platform within KAAML — raised in 2016. The fund was co-founded by Alroy Lobo (Founding Member, CEO – Listed Strategies) and Bhavin Shah (Co-Founder, Director – Listed Strategies). The 'WHIZDOM' framework is a proprietary stock-evaluation methodology developed by Alroy Lobo at Kotak Institutional Equities. IWF invests in mid-sized listed companies with a Buy-and-Hold approach over a 3–5 year horizon, building a high-conviction concentrated portfolio. A successor fund, India Whizdom Fund II, was subsequently launched, focusing on mid and small-cap stocks with the same philosophy. Registered address: 27 BKC, 7th Floor, Plot No. C-27, G Block, BKC, Bandra East, Mumbai – 400051.

Investment Philosophy

Kotak India Whizdom Fund follows a private equity-style investment approach in public markets. The fund employs the WHIZDOM framework — a proprietary methodology developed by Alroy Lobo — for evaluating stocks based on Management-Business-Valuation (MBV) criteria. IWF seeks companies in the early stages of their evolution that have the potential to consistently deliver superior absolute returns over 1, 3, 5, 10, and 15-year time frames. The portfolio is sector-agnostic, high-conviction, and concentrated, built over time with negligible churn. The investment horizon of 3–5 years mirrors PE-style holding periods, with deep pre-investment diligence and proactive engagement with management post-investment.

Team— 3

Alroy Lobo

Founding Member & CEO – Listed Strategies, Kotak Alternate Asset Managers Limited

Alroy Lobo joined Kotak Investment Advisors in August 2015 to lead Listed Strategies. He is the Founding Member of India Whizdom Fund. He spearheaded the WHIZDOM proprietary stock-evaluation framework at Kotak Institutional Equities, where he was Head of Equity Research, Equity Strategist, and Head of Institutional Equities (during the Goldman Sachs JV era). He has 25+ years in Indian equities. He is a CFA (CFA Institute) and ICFAI gold medalist; gold medalist in BE Mechanical Engineering from Regional Engineering College Srinagar (1985); first ranker in MMS Finance from Sydenham Institute (1988).

Bhavin Shah

Co-Founder & Director – Listed Strategies, Kotak Alternate Asset Managers Limited

Bhavin Shah co-founded India Whizdom Fund and the Kotak Listed Strategies platform in 2015. He has 21+ years in equity investments across PE, IB/M&A, and public markets. Prior to Kotak, he set up the India business for a global KPO company (2,000+ team members) and worked with a Hong Kong-based PE fund focused on outsourced tech-enabled services. CA from ICAI; MBA from IIM Ahmedabad; BCom from Sydenham College, Mumbai.

Ameya (surname not confirmed)

Investment Team, Kotak Listed Strategies (joined Sep 2021)

Ameya joined Kotak Listed Strategies in September 2021. Previously in the Research division of IIFL Institutional Equities for 4 years.

Registration

SEBI Registration

SEBI-registered

Reg. NumberIN/AIF3/16-17/0217

VintageApr 2016 · 10 yrs old

Valid ToPerpetual

Address27 BKC, 7TH FLOOR, PLOT NO C 27, G BLOCK, BANDRA KURLA COMPLEX, BANDRA EAST, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400051

Investment Manager

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Disclaimer

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