New fund offers in September 2026: what launched

The number

21 new schemes published their first NAV in September 2026, counting each fund's Direct Growth plan. AMFI's list of open new fund offers (NFOs) on 1 October carried nine more, with launch dates from 21 to 30 September.

The two lists are different stages of the same thing. An NFO is the subscription window; a scheme publishes its first NAV once the offer closes and units are allotted.

The NFOs launched in late September

These nine were on AMFI's NFO list on 1 October 2026:

Six of the nine are passive: four ETFs and two index funds. Only one, ICICI Prudential Contra Fund, is a conventional actively managed equity fund.

The schemes that started in September

The 21 that began publishing NAVs in September show three themes clearly.

Real estate through an index. Navi Nifty REITs & Realty Index Fund started on 17 September and HDFC BSE REITs and Commercial Real Estate Index Fund on 22 September. Motilal Oswal's REITs and realty index fund was in its NFO at the month's end, making three in a few weeks.

Arbitrage inside a fund of funds. Nippon India Income Plus Arbitrage Omni FoF began on 3 September and quant Income Plus Arbitrage Active FOF on 7 September.

Target-date investing. Zerodha Life Cycle Fund 2031 started on 18 September, and Mirae Asset's Life Cycle Fund 2056 opened its NFO ten days later.

The month also brought first schemes from new fund houses. ASK Liquid Fund began on 2 September, Monarch Overnight Fund on 9 September and Lakshya Overnight Fund on 24 September. ASK, Monarch and Lakshya are three of the four houses that AMFI's April–June 2026 table listed with no assets figure.

The year so far

From January to September 2026, 143 new schemes began publishing a Direct Growth NAV. In the same nine months of 2025 there were 174.

Launches slowed sharply from April to June, to five in June, and picked up again from July.

By category, index funds led with 41, then active equity with 36, fund-of-funds with 31, debt with 15 and hybrid with 12. Of the 36 equity launches, 17 were sectoral or thematic. Kotak Mahindra launched the most, nine, followed by SBI with eight and Groww, Zerodha and HDFC with seven each.

What this does not tell you

A new fund has no record. There is no return, volatility or drawdown history to judge an NFO by, only a strategy on paper and the house's other funds.

A ₹10 NAV is not cheap. NFO units are usually issued at ₹10, but the price of a unit says nothing about value. What you own is a share of the portfolio, whatever the NAV.

This count misses most ETFs. It counts schemes with a Direct Growth plan, and ETFs have no Direct plan, so the 143 understates how many ETFs were launched. AMFI's NFO list is also a snapshot: offers that opened and closed earlier in September are not on it, though most of them appear among the 21.

Where to go from here

The screener lists every new scheme once its NAV is published. The guide to index funds and ETFs explains the products that dominate the launch list, and REITs and InvITs covers what the new real-estate funds hold. For where the money already sits, see the fastest-growing fund houses.