The busiest month so far
25 new schemes published their first NAV in March 2026, counting each fund's Direct plan, Growth option. That follows 22 in February and 11 in January, so the first quarter of 2026 brought 58 new schemes, one more than the 57 of January–March 2025, counted the same way among funds still publishing a NAV.
March also closed the financial year. Between April 2025 and March 2026, 204 new schemes began publishing a Direct Growth NAV. The busiest month was July 2025 with 29; the quietest was April 2025, with 6.
Left out of the count: Axis Fixed Maturity Plan Series 130, a 92-day closed-ended plan that started on 17 March.
The list
A month of wrappers
The biggest group was not equity but fund-of-funds: nine of the 25. Four each hold a single ETF: silver twice, gold once and a hospitals ETF once. The other five are blends: two multi-factor passive funds, an all-cap equity FoF, an arbitrage-plus-income FoF, and Kotak's overseas quality fund, the only scheme in the list that invests outside India.
Nine were active equity funds. Five are sectoral or thematic (services, ESG, business cycle, technology, banking and financial services), and four are diversified: a flexi-cap, a mid-cap and two small-cap funds.
The four index funds are an unusual set. Three of them track CRISIL-IBX indices of short-term financial-services debt, with 3–6 or 9–12 month maturities: two from Nippon India and one from HDFC. They are debt funds in an index wrapper. Only Groww's PSU bank fund tracks a stock index.
Three hybrid funds made up the rest: two arbitrage funds, from Capitalmind and Helios, and Capitalmind's multi-asset fund. In all, 19 houses launched something in March; Kotak Mahindra led with three.
Launched into a falling month
The Nifty 50 closed at 24,865.70 on 2 March and at 22,713.10 on 2 April, a fall of 8.66%. The new equity funds lost far less than that. Of the ten equity funds and equity index funds in the list, six were below their first NAV on 2 April, and the largest gap was Kotak Services at 3.06%. One likely reason: a new fund can take weeks to invest the money it raised, and cash it has not yet invested does not fall with the market.
The biggest moves came from the metal funds. Angel One Silver ETF FoF was 12.36% below its first NAV of 6 March; the international silver price in rupees fell 12.41% over the same days. Edelweiss Gold ETF FoF was 6.90% down from the same date.
What this does not tell you
A few weeks of NAVs are noise. Early returns depend mostly on the day a fund started and how fast it invested, not on its manager.
The count misses ETFs and closed-ended plans. It is built from Direct Growth NAVs, which ETFs do not have, and it leaves out fixed maturity plans.
A launch is not a recommendation. A new fund has no record to judge it by beyond its strategy on paper.
Where to go from here
The guide to fund-of-funds explains the wrapper that dominated March, and target maturity funds covers how debt index funds work. For the month's market fall, see the March 2026 market recap, and for February's launches, the new funds of February 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How many new mutual funds launched in March 2026?
25 new schemes published their first Direct Growth NAV in March 2026, after 22 in February and 11 in January. One 92-day fixed maturity plan that also started in March is not counted.
How many mutual funds launched in the financial year 2025-26?
Counted the same way, 204 schemes that were still publishing a NAV in early April 2026 had their first Direct Growth NAV between April 2025 and March 2026. July 2025 was the busiest month with 29 and April 2025 the quietest with 6.
Which new funds of March 2026 fell the most?
Angel One Silver ETF FoF, which was 12.36% below its first NAV on 2 April 2026. The international silver price in rupees fell 12.41% between its first NAV on 6 March and 2 April.
This is commentary on published data, not investment advice. WealthTicker is not a SEBI-registered adviser or distributor. Figures are as of the dates stated and can be revised by their source.
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