Two fund houses, Aditya Birla Mutual Fund and Navi MF have independently filed documents with SEBI to start plans that would invest in firms in the Metaverse domain. These would include those in the Blockchain ecosystem as well as those in the virtual digital environment. Currently, these are two of the most exciting niches in the technological field, and numerous great brains are investing large money in them.
The Metaverse is a virtual environment of social connections that operates by generally accepted standards rather than centralized laws. Surprisingly, paperwork for the establishment of two funds by two distinct fund firms with quite different pedigrees was submitted to the regulator on the same day. Birla MF is a 28-year-old fund company owned by the Aditya Birla Group, one of India's oldest economic giants.
Navi MF, on the other hand, has been around for about a year and is supported by Sachin Bansal, the co-founder of online retailer Flipkart. Originally known as Essel MF, the fund was purchased by Bansal's firm and renamed.
Birla MF's filings filed with SEBI state that the fund's goal is to "deliver long-term capital appreciation by investing in units of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that are focused on the global Blockchain concept (including virtual digital assets)." Blockchain technology is the foundation of cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens. This database technology, which was initially intended to power the virtual world, is now being used in the real world as well, in sectors such as loans, cross-border payments, provenance for works of fine arts, and property records.
According to the paperwork submitted by Navi MF, its primary goal is "to deliver long-term capital appreciation by investing in units of foreign ETFs and/or index funds that invest in firms involved in developing and companies that stand to gain from Metaverse progress." Once Sebi has reviewed the documents and given its approval, the fund houses will be allowed to establish these schemes, allowing Indian investors to participate in firms in this developing technological field.
