AIF minimum investment — ₹1 crore, and every exception to it
What is the minimum investment in an AIF in India?
₹1 crore. Regulation 10(c) of the SEBI (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations, 2012 bars an AIF other than an angel fund from accepting less than one crore rupees from an investor. Employees and directors of the AIF or of its manager may invest ₹25 lakh. A large value fund requires ₹25 crore per investor, cut from ₹70 crore on 18 November 2025.
The number
₹1 crore minimum investment per investor in an AIF, other than an angel fund (SEBI, AIF Regulations, Regulation 10(c), as at 24 August 2026)SEBI's own wording: an AIF other than an angel fund "shall not accept from an investor, an investment of value less than one crore rupees."
It is a floor on the investment, not a fee and not a target. It cannot be waived by the fund, negotiated down, or worked around by splitting a commitment across schemes of the same fund.
Every exception, with its authority
| Who or what | Minimum | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Any investor in an AIF, other than an angel fund | ₹1 crore | Regulation 10(c) |
| Employees and directors of the AIF | ₹25 lakh | Regulation 10(c) |
| Employees and directors of the manager | ₹25 lakh | Regulation 10(c) |
| An angel investor in an angel fund | ₹25 lakh | Angel fund provisions, Chapter III-A |
| Every investor in a large value fund | ₹25 crore | Third amendment, 18 November 2025 |
Angel funds are the outlier throughout. They are a sub-category of venture capital fund inside Category I and they run under Chapter III-A of the AIF Regulations rather than the general provisions. SEBI has amended that chapter since, so treat the angel figures here as the Chapter III-A position and check the current text before relying on them.
Note the exact wording of the ₹25 lakh case. SEBI grants it to employees and directors of the AIF, and employees and directors of the manager. It is an insider provision, on the reasoning that these people are running the fund rather than buying into it at arm's length.
The large value fund figure, and when it changed
₹25 crore minimum per investor in a large value fund, reduced from ₹70 crore (SEBI, third amendment to the AIF Regulations, as at 18 November 2025)A large value fund is one in which every investor is accredited and commits at least the threshold amount. SEBI cut that threshold from ₹70 crore to ₹25 crore in the third amendment to the AIF Regulations, notified on 18 November 2025.
At ₹70 crore the structure reached a very small number of family offices and institutions. At ₹25 crore it reaches a materially larger group. The same amendment created the Accredited Investors Only AIF and granted it six relaxations.
The standard ₹1 crore minimum is untouched by that amendment. It applies to every fund that is not a large value fund.
The fund's own minimum size
A separate floor applies to the scheme rather than to the investor.
₹20 crore minimum corpus of a scheme of an AIF, other than an angel fund (SEBI, AIF Regulations, Regulation 10(b), as at 24 August 2026)This is why the two numbers get confused. ₹20 crore is what the fund must raise for a scheme to exist. ₹1 crore is what you must commit to be in it. Angel funds sit under a separate corpus requirement in the angel fund provisions, which SEBI has amended since, so check the current regulation text rather than a secondary source for that figure.
Joint investors
The ₹1 crore may be met jointly, but only within a defined family relationship and only two people deep. SEBI permits an investor to invest jointly with a spouse, a parent, or a daughter or son, with no more than two persons acting as joint investors. Any other pairing does not qualify, and each investor must then meet the ₹1 crore individually.
This sits in SEBI circular CIR/IMD/DF/14/2014 dated 19 June 2014, not in the regulations themselves, which is why it is missing from most summaries.
Committed, not paid
The ₹1 crore is normally a capital commitment rather than a cheque written on day one. In a close-ended Category I or Category II fund the manager draws down against the commitment over the investment period, on notice, at times the investor does not control.
Two consequences follow, and both are frequently missed:
- The whole amount is legally committed from the start, whatever has been called so far. It is not an amount you can revise downwards once the fund has closed.
- Failing a drawdown call has consequences set out in the fund documents, which in private funds can extend to forfeiture of part of what has already been contributed. The clause is worth reading before signing, not after.
What the minimum does not tell you
The ₹1 crore floor is a regulatory threshold for entry. It says nothing about whether any particular fund is worth entering, and there is no public source that would let anyone rank Indian AIFs on results — see why AIF performance is not public.
If you have cleared the threshold and are working out what to examine next, the questions are set out in how to choose an AIF.
Sources
- SEBI (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations, 2012, Regulation 10(b) and 10(c), as reproduced in SEBI's own FAQs on Alternative Investment Funds.
- SEBI circular CIR/IMD/DF/14/2014 dated 19 June 2014, on joint investors.
- Third amendment to the AIF Regulations, notified 18 November 2025, covered at Accredited Investors Only AIFs.
Figures were checked against source on 24 August 2026. Verify with SEBI before acting.
Checked against source on 24 August 2026. This page is information, not legal, tax or investment advice.