Peak XV Partners is in advanced stages of deliberations to lead or fully finance a funding round in Neo Group, an asset management and financial advisory firm, three sources familiar with the matter said.
The firm is finalizing an investment of as much as $50 million in Neo Group, which also runs a family office, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the deliberations are ongoing and not public. The deal hasn’t finalized, so the terms may change, one of the people cautioned.
Peak XV declined to comment. Mumbai-headquartered Neo Group didn’t immediately respond.
Nitin Jain, former chief executive of Edelweiss Financial Services, and a group of other veteran financial service executives from Edelweiss founded Neo Group in late 2021. The startup, which was managing more than $1 billion in assets by mid-last year, earlier raised about $40 million from undisclosed investors, according to an earlier statement.
India’s asset management industry, with over $540 billion in assets under management, is increasingly attracting more players. Jio Financial Services, part of Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, last month joined forces with the U.S. giant BlackRock to form a 50:50 joint venture to launch asset management services in the South Asian market.
“India’s current household financial wealth stands at around $3 trillion and is likely to grow at 17-18% over the next decade. It is happening at a time when interest rates in India are at historic lows. This coupled with increasing inflation and higher life expectancy is going to drive the need for sophisticated alternatives to bank deposits in form of fixed income, private debt and other long-term yielding instruments,” Jain said last year.
For Peak XV, an investment in Neo would be the latest in a series of recent checks the firm has cut amid its split from the storied venture firm Sequoia. Masters Union and Wingreens are also in late-stage discussions to secure investment from Peak XV, according to local media reports.