Aashish P Sommaiyaa, equity partner and chief executive officer of WhiteOak Capital, said the initiative will use a multi-manager FoF structure and that the company has hired a manager with nearly two decades of experience in managing such strategies in the US.

“It’s a multi manager fund. It will invest in direct plans of small cap funds. It’s a new initiative,” Sommaiyaa said in a post on social media on 3 September 2026.

Under the proposed structure, 95%-100% of the scheme's assets will be invested in units of equity-oriented small-cap mutual fund schemes, while 0%-5% may be invested in debt and money market instruments, government securities, T-Bills and TREPS.

Sommaiyaa said the multi-manager structure would combine quantitative analysis to shortlist funds with qualitative assessment. According to him, this approach could reduce the probability of selecting the worst or most volatile funds from the small-cap universe.

He said there are “probably 3 dozen smallcap funds” in the market and argued that a professionally managed FoF could improve the probability of selecting winners while making decisions to stay invested or disinvest more systematic.

The CEO also highlighted the potential tax-efficiency of the structure. Investors could continue their SIPs in the FoF while the fund manager changes or recalibrates exposure to underlying schemes based on periodic assessments. Sommaiyaa said switching between underlying small-cap funds within the FoF would not require the investor to redeem from one fund and invest in another, thereby avoiding a tax event at the investor level.

On performance expectations, Sommaiyaa said the small-cap FoF would not necessarily be the best or top performer among small-cap peers. However, if it performs as intended, he expects it to remain above average and typically land in the second quartile, while having lower volatility of alpha compared with an individual fund.

The scheme will benchmark its performance against the Nifty Smallcap 250 TRI and will follow an active investment strategy, with allocations across multiple small-cap mutual fund schemes based on factors including relative valuations, market cycles, liquidity, fund manager track record, portfolio overlap and risk-return characteristics.

The scheme will offer direct and regular plans, with the growth option. The NFO price will be Rs 10 per unit, while the minimum application amount during the NFO period will be Rs 500.

The scheme will have no entry load. An exit load of 1% will apply if units are redeemed or switched out within one year from the date of allotment. No exit load will apply after one year.

The NFO opening and closing dates have not yet been specified. The scheme will be managed by Ashish Agrawal, Bhavin Patadia and Nikunj Sampat. Agrawal has over 18 years of financial-market experience, while Patadia and Sampat have over 17 years and 15 years of experience, respectively, according to the Scheme Information Document.