India’s outbound capital via GIFT City surges 8x as affluent investors globalise portfolios

India’s outbound capital via GIFT City surges 8x as affluent investors globalise portfolios

Outbound investments through GIFT City’s IFSC have risen sharply as India’s affluent investors turn increasingly global in their asset allocation. outbound commitments surged from $170.99 million in September 2023 to $1.43 billion by June 2025, an eightfold increase in under two years.

The PMS & AIF Special Edition unveiled at the PMS AIF Summit 8.0 noted that GIFT IFSC’s evolving ecosystem, including flexible fund structuring norms, globally competitive taxation and easier cross-border movement, has made it a natural channel for Indians looking to diversify away from domestic markets.

Outbound investments have accelerated as domestic and international investors leverage GIFT IFSC to access global investment opportunities in a seamless, regulated and tax-efficient environment.

The jump in outbound flows sits within a broader shift highlighted across the report. India’s wealthy investors — a segment projected to reach 19.4 lakh HNIs and 1.54 lakh UHNIs by 2030 — are rapidly professionalising their approach to asset allocation. Therefore, indicating that Indian wealth creation is entering a phase where investors seek non-correlated, absolute-return, and global exposures after benefiting heavily from domestic equities over the past decade.

This helps explain why outbound flows are rising in parallel with a surge in Category III AIFs - a structural enabler of offshore allocations.

Cat III AIF commitments at GIFT City surged from $356.59 million in September 2023 to $10,150.02 million by June 2025. This was driven largely by feeder funds. Herein, the outbound theme intersects with the alternatives boom.

• Long-only and long–short hedge fund strategies are increasingly being accessed through GIFT
• Tactical and absolute-return products now sit alongside global equity and credit allocations
• India-domiciled feeder funds are channelling capital into offshore vehicles at a scale never seen before

This simultaneous rise is central to the report’s narrative: GIFT IFSC is no longer simply a conduit for foreign private capital entering India — it is maturing into a two-way investment superhighway.

Fund management industry at GIFT multiplying rapidly
Fund Management Entities (FMEs) rose from 73 in Sept 2023 to 194 by Sept 2025
while registered funds increased from 68 to 310 over the same period. This institutional depth has made it easier for Indian investors to deploy offshore allocations through familiar domestic fund houses operating global or multi-jurisdictional strategies.

The confluence of trends - the global alternatives boom, the growth of India’s affluent population, rising CAT III activity, the professionalisation of family offices, and GIFT IFSC’s expanding regulatory flexibility, shows that outbound flows are not a temporary FX-driven spike. They represent a structural shift in Indian wealth behaviour.

Domestic valuations remain elevated, private credit and alternative assets abroad offer differentiated risk–reward, and investors are increasingly benchmarked against global peers. GIFT provides the bridge.

The report suggests outbound flows could rise meaningfully from current levels. With more fund managers securing IFSC approvals and global products being redomiciled or feedered through GIFT, wealth managers anticipate annual outbound deployments crossing USD 3 to 4 billion in the coming years.

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