

Jio BlackRock changes tack, reaches out to mutual fund distributors
fintechs to market its mutual fund products.The company's move comes after a muted debut of its first equity scheme, the Jio BlackRock Flexicap Fund.Launched in October 2025, the Jio BlackRock Flexicap Fund's assets under management (AUM) stood at ₹2,613 crore at the end of January, compared with ₹2,808 crore of the Abakkus Flexicap Fund, launched in December 2025."For a name like Jio BlackRock, it should have seen a higher uptick in its flexicap fund. Trying to go purely direct in India, especially for a new AMC, might be difficult," said Srikanth Meenakshi, co-founder of mutual fund research platform Primeinevstor.In a 6 Septemberinterview with Mint, its chief executive, Sid Swaminathan, said people were becoming increasingly comfortable managing their finances digitally on their phones, and its partnership with Jio, which has access to that ecosystem, gave it a clear understanding that this is the direction it wants to pursue.
“We aim to see how direct digital approaches work," Swaminathan had said.However, it did not rule out taking the distributor route at some point in the future. “We do not rule out physical distribution at some point down the line", he said in a 30 October Mint interview, but the focus at the moment is to fully harness the “power of the phone".In a direct model, the investor does not pay a commission to the mutual fund distributor for advising them.
Read on livemint.com