WhiteBoard to launch $100 mn urban assets AIF, target offshore capital

Fund will invest across asset classes such as data centres, warehousing and housing, with a $100 million corpus and equal greenshoe, targeting offshore investors

WhiteBoard Financial Advisors and Management plans to launch its second alternative investment fund (AIF), an urban assets fund with an initial corpus of $100 million and a greenshoe option of another $100 million, as it looks to widen its play beyond residential real estate into new-age and alternative asset classes.

 

“We are talking to a couple of large sponsors in India and overseas. The fund will be an urban assets platform, which will provide growth capital across diversified asset classes, including data centres, warehousing, student/senior housing, residential, offices, malls, hotels, schools, etc.,” said Anchit Lakhotiya, founder and fund manager at WhiteBoard Financial Advisors & Management.

   

The firm will be mainly targeting offshore investors for the fund and will be setting up an entity in GIFT City for the same. It is looking to launch the fund between the end of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027.

 

According to Lakhotiya, the fund will be a value-generating fund because it will invest across multiple asset classes. “Today in India, funds are largely sector-specific—residential, commercial, warehousing, or malls. There is no AIF of scale investing across all real estate asset classes. We can do that because of our experience,” he added.

 

Lakhotiya stated that diversification gives the fund flexibility and agility in deploying capital based on timing. The fund will target the top eight to ten urban growth centres in India for capital deployment and will aim for an internal rate of return (IRR) of over 20 per cent. The fund will have a seven-year life cycle with an option of a two-year extension.

 

Lakhotiya said that with uncertainty around the Gulf region due to the West Asia conflict, a capital reallocation towards India can happen. “Dubai has been attracting US and European capital. But with uncertainty there, investors looking for growth opportunities in Asia will look at India as the next stable market. China is not the preferred option for many. So, if capital allocation to Asia continues, India becomes the natural alternative. This situation could accelerate capital inflows into India,” he said.

 

WhiteBoard, at a platform level, currently manages over ₹500 crore in assets and aims to scale its assets under management to ₹5,000–6,000 crore (or roughly $600 million) between 2026 and 2029, driven by multiple AIF platforms across real estate and allied sectors. The advisory firm overall has managed an AUM of over ₹30,000 crore, reporting an IRR of 22 per cent.

 

The firm is also in discussions with “large logistics players” to set up a fund for equity investments into companies supporting the logistics ecosystem.

 

“Warehousing and cold storage are growing strongly, but there are also ancillary industries supporting that growth. We want to work with established logistics players and combine their expertise with capital for equity investments into those ancillary sectors,” Lakhotiya told Business Standard.

 

WhiteBoard has Millenia WB Yield Fund in place with a targeted corpus of ₹500 crore to provide growth capital for residential projects across key South Indian markets, including Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. The all-domestic fund has completed its first investment of ₹41 crore towards a Grade A villa development in South Hyderabad, with a projected topline of ₹400 crore.

 

The firm has partnered with Casagrand, a Chennai-based developer gearing up to go public, for the fund that is targeting an IRR of 16–18.5 per cent and has a five-year life cycle. Lakhotiya further added that his platform will be looking for more such region-wise partnerships across India.

 

“The broader idea is to create an umbrella platform with multiple AIF schemes under multiple sponsors, addressing different growth engines of the India story,” Lakhotiya added.