Schonfeld Strategic Advisors has provided seed capital to a Sarda Capital, a London-based investment firm offering investors exposure to Indian equity markets through allocations to local hedge funds, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The report cites unnamed people familiar with the matter as revealing that Sarda Capital has received $100m from Schonfeld. The capital is being managed via a separately managed account on a non-exclusive basis, with Sarda allocating across a select group of Indian hedge fund managers.
The firm currently works with five India-based managers through SMAs, focusing on equity and derivatives strategies designed to deliver market-neutral and uncorrelated returns. Sarda combines quantitative and fundamental approaches, targeting inefficiencies in India’s retail-driven and highly liquid equity markets.
Sarda Capital was co-founded by Karan Sarda, Hetul Bhanabhai and Rollo Hesketh-Harvey. Sarda, the firm’s founder and Chief Investment Officer, was previously a partner at Alma Capital Group and earlier served as global head of hedge funds at DWS Group, Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm.
Large multistrategy platforms including Schonfeld, Millennium Management and Qube Research & Technologies have been deploying billions of dollars to external managers to access new sources of alpha and diversify risk. Schonfeld has been particularly active, having backed several launches in recent years, including Abu Dhabi-based fund Newera Capital and Mistral Capital, founded by former Garda Capital manager Nicolas Monaghan.
