CRISIL MI&A Research on Wednesday launched its alternative investment fund (AIF) benchmarks for March 2023, including five new ones in the sub-category-level - social venture funds, SME funds - both in Category I; real estate funds - residential (debt-oriented) in Category II; and long-only equity funds (open-ended) and long-only equity funds (closed-end), both in Category III.

These have been added to a list of already available sub-category-level benchmarks launched in May 2023.

With this, CRISIL now provides peer comparison for AIFs in 15 sub-categories within the broad AIF categories I, II, and III (listed below) to help investors analyse performance and evaluate investments.

Says Jiju Vidyadharan, Senior Director, CRISIL Market Intelligence & Analytics, “AIFs are one of the important sources of funding not only for early-stage start-ups, but also for companies that require growth capital. The growth of the AIF industry thus bodes well for economic development. AIF benchmarks help investors arrive at their decision and thus aid growth of the industry.”

In Category II, the real estate funds – residential (debt-oriented) benchmark aims to build a diversified portfolio comprising mostly residential assets and invests in them through debt securities. In Category III, funds can be open-ended or closed-end. While most funds considered for CRISIL AIF benchmarks long-short equity are open-ended, long-only equity funds have a mix of open and closed-end funds, which are now covered by the benchmarks.