The total number of mutual fund folios has touched 24.89 crore in August with the first five months of FY26 registering a jump of 5.3 percent.
While the cumulative number is at a record high, nearing the 25-crore mark, the pace of growth has slowed compared to the first five months of FY25, when folio count jumped a little over 14 percent -- from 16.99 crore to 19.4 crore.
To be sure, these numbers represent folio counts, not individual investors, as a single investor can hold multiple folios across different schemes.
Incidentally, investor participation has surged significantly over the years with the number of unique permanent account number (PAN) holders investing in mutual funds surging over two-fold from 2.1 crore in March 2020 to 4.5 crore in March 2024, according to an AMFI-CRISIL report released in March 2025.
Equity schemes remained the largest segment with 17.32 crore folios, as per August data released by Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI). Further, growth moderated to 5 percent during the April–August period of FY26, compared with 13.8 percent in the same period of FY25, reflecting a slowdown in fresh equity folios.
Debt scheme folios increased to 76 lakh in August, up from 70 lakh in April, recovering from a marginal decline in the same period last year. Hybrid schemes rose to 1.68 crore folios, up from 1.58 crore in April, slightly higher than last year, reflecting steady investor interest in diversified funds.
The “others” category, which includes ETFs, index funds, and passive funds, reached 4.46 crore folios in August, up from 4.19 crore in April and 3.47 crore in August 2024, showing strong year-on-year growth.
Within this category, domestic equity ETFs held 1.66 crore folios, gold ETFs 80 lakh, international equity ETFs 10 lakh, debt-oriented ETFs 25 lakh, silver ETFs 11 lakh, and fund-of-funds investing overseas 14 lakh.
Solution-oriented schemes rose to 62 lakh folios, up from 61 lakh in April, while closed-ended and interval scheme folios, newly reported in FY26, accounted for 5 lakh.
Ventura Securities' Juzer Gabajiwala said that there can be a number of reasons for the decline in folio count.
“Lower NFO activity has also meant fewer folios are being created, and folio consolidation further affects totals. Overall, the slowdown in folio growth could be due to a combination of cautious investor sentiment, fewer new folios, and consolidation. However, a definitive conclusion requires examining the actual number of unique investors,” he said.
During the month of August, equity-oriented mutual funds saw net inflows of Rs 33,430 crore, marking the 54th consecutive month of positive flows. A total of 23 schemes were launched in the month (open-ended and across categories), raising a total of Rs 2,859 crore. SIPs contributed around Rs 28,265 crore in August, marginally lower than July’s Rs 28,464 crore.
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