Co-founder Gubbi leads Marcellus foray into MFs as it looks beyond ultra HNIs

The move signals a strategic shift to a sales-first approach for the high-profile portfolio management service (PMS) provider, synonymous with chief investment officer Saurabh Mukherjea, as it seeks to expand its footprint beyond ultra-high-net-worth clients.

A career institutional sales and research veteran, Gubbi currently manages sales and marketing efforts of the Mumbai-based Marcellus. He is also on the company’s investment committee that discusses and approves its investment strategies.

“Gubbi heading the AMC push instead of Mukherjea shows Marcellus’ focus on distribution,” the head of a domestic mutual fund business told Mint, wishing not to be named. “Gubbi’s background in sales will be crucial for navigating the intense competition for shelf space among India’s mutual fund distributors and banking platforms,” this person added.

An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, Gubbi earlier served as the head of institutional equities at Ambit Capital, where he spent eight years managing relationships with foreign institutional investors before co-founding Marcellus in 2018.

Gubbi will oversee the establishment of the new asset management company, said one of the people quoted above. The AMC has already received an in-principle nod from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in November last year.

His mandate includes hiring an investment and compliance team by the time Sebi’s final approval comes through, said the person, who asked not to be identified, as the details are private.

Marcellus plans to invest an initial ₹80 crore into the mutual funds business, and then, an additional ₹20 crore once the regulatory approval is cleared, the second person told Mint.

The company has already started looking for a banking operations team member, with at least a three-to-seven year experience to join its AMC business.

Both the people quoted in the story did not have a visibility on when the final approval from Sebi is expected.

The decision comes at a testing time for new entrants in India’s crowded asset management space. While the industry manages record assets, organically-built AMCs have become a rarity, with most recent entrants preferring to acquire existing licences or form joint ventures.

Last month, Groww Asset Management Co. brought in State Street Investment Management as a strategic partner, with a ₹580 crore fund infusion for a 23% stake.

In December, Jio Financial Services Ltd and global major BlackRock Inc. together infused ₹229 crore into their joint venture, Jio BlackRock Asset Management. Jio BlackRock had got its final approval from Sebi in May 2025.

Industry data analyzed by Mint shows that India’s top 10 fund houses control over 80% of industry assets. New entrants such as Helios Capital and Zerodha Fund House have had to rely on distinct niches like active management and passive tech-first models, respectively to gain traction.

Marcellus is betting that its strong brand equity in the portfolio management services market will help it bypass the distribution bottlenecks that typically stifle new standalone funds, the second person told Mint.

Marcellus Investment managed assets worth ₹3,265 crore as of December end 2025, according to a disclosure document.

There was no response to Mint‘s email to Marcellus for comments on the story until press time.

Marcellus’s push into mutual funds comes at a time when its PMS business is struggling. The portfolio manager’s total income for the financial year ended March 2025 fell 32% to ₹99 crore and its profit narrowed 74% to just under ₹8 crore.

The foray into mutual funds represents a diversification strategy and a bid to capture India’s booming systematic investment plan (SIP) flows, which saw inflows of ₹31,002 crore in January 2026.

Currently, Marcellus’ PMS products require a minimum ticket size of ₹50 lakh, restricting access to only wealthy families and family offices. A mutual fund licence would allow the firm to potentially onboard retail investors with as little as ₹250, vastly widening its addressable market.