Two large money managers with more than $70 billion of assets under management (AUM) are setting up their tech facilities in Bengaluru, marking the entry of a new cohort into India’s global capability centre (GCC) landscape.
London-based Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP, with $35 billion of AUM, is looking to set up a 100-member office under the name Brevan Howard India Pvt Ltd at RMZ Ecoworld in Bellandur, Bengaluru, according to an executive with knowledge of the matter. The office will handle tech roles for the fund manager, among other things.
This is less than four months after Point72 Asset Management, a Connecticut-based fund manager with about $40 billion of AUM, opened a similar-sized office in Bengaluru’s Wilson Garden area in March.
They are the latest fund managers to set up tech centres in the country after DE Shaw & Co LLP, which opened its first office in Hyderabad back in in 1996, AQR Capital Management LLC, which opened its Bengaluru office in October 2018, and Millennium Management Global Investment, which opened offices in Bengaluru and Mumbai in 2022, potentially marking a new chapter for GCCs in India. While large banks and financial institutions have already set up GCCs in the country, smaller fund managers eyeing India for its captive units is a new phenomenon.
Welcome to Bengaluru
According to a source, Brevan Howard has tasked New Delhi-based Mancer Consulting, a staffing services and executive search firm, and others with hiring executives for middle-level and senior roles.
A second person told Mint the fund manager announced two directors of its India unit – Michael Angus Sanders and Sumit Chaturvedi – and that the office was incorporated on 6 May. Sanders is the parent company’s chief technology officer and is based in UK. Chaturvedi is the company’s tech head in India and is based in Bengaluru.
Mint has learnt that Bengaluru is already home to about two dozen of the company’s employees in tech roles including site engineers, quant developers, and software engineers.
As for Point72, a third executive said the money manager has four people listed as directors of its Indian entity Point72 India Pvt – India head Sajid Ahmed (additional director), Vishal Chandrakant Negandhi, Jade Ellen Cornell Harber, and Simon Henry Gwyther. Harber is the company’s chief compliance officer and Gwyther heads the fund’s UAE business. Mint could not ascertain Negandhi’s designation.
The fund manager has employed about a dozen people at its Bengaluru office, for roles ranging from software engineer to HR specialist, and is looking to increase its presence in the country.
Brevan Howard and Point72 declined to comment. An email sent to Mancer did not elicit a response.
Start of a new trend?
The entry of money managers into India’s GCC market is relatively new. The largest GCCs in India include those of JP Morgan, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, which employ more than 10,000 people each.
An expert said more asset management firms may set up shop in the country in the coming years, lured by high-end, specialised talent. Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, partner at Catalincs, a tech growth advisory firm, said, “As India is home to sophisticated talent such as data scientists, quant modellers, AI experts, portfolio analysts, investment managers, and risk and compliance officers, we should expect more specialised financial services companies to set up their operations here.” He added, “specialised companies look for high-end talent at the intersection of finance and technology.”
According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the country’s $283-billion IT industry employs about 5.8 million people. GCCs account for almost a third of the headcount and generate export revenue of at least $64.6 billion.
India currently has more than 1,760 GCCs, of which 875 are based in Bengaluru and 355 in Hyderabad. The rest are in cities such as Delhi-NCR, Pune, and Chennai. Nasscom estimates India will have 2,200 GCCs by March 2030 and the market will be worth $105 billion by then.
