Building a Mutual Funds Business to ₹1,400 Cr AUM in 12 Months
The Problem
PhonePe had payments scale and deep user trust — but its investment product was nascent. Mutual funds are a high-consideration category. Users are nervous, confused by financial jargon, and easy to lose at any point in the journey. The challenge wasn't traffic. It was building a product experience that could take a first-time investor in India from hesitation to habit — and then turn that habit into a growing business.
My role
Product Manager leading the Mutual Funds vertical end to end — owning strategy, a team of 16, and full accountability for the investment product's growth. I joined when the product was early and left it as a scaled business.
What I Built
Three parallel bets, each targeting a distinct barrier between a user and their first — or next — investment.
Bet 1 — Removing the entry barrier
The existing product presented mutual funds the way a financial advisor would. I launched DIY investing flows and goal-based categories (save for a home, build an emergency fund) that gave users a clear, intent-led entry point in plain language. These categories now contribute 60% of total payment volume on the platform.
Bet 2 — Removing the knowledge barrier
First-time investors in India are not financially illiterate — they are financially under-served. I built investment training modules embedded directly in the product journey, designed to build just enough confidence to take the first action — not to educate comprehensively, but to unblock. User growth was 6x within 3 months of launch.
Bet 3 — Removing the drop-off
High-intent users were dropping off mid-funnel, particularly in the ELSS (tax-saving funds) category. I used behavioural segmentation models to build persona-specific flows that matched the product experience to where each user was in their decision journey. ELSS drove 40% YoY revenue growth. New user acquisition increased 32%.
The Outcome
₹200 Cr (~$24M) monthly transaction volume and ₹1,400 Cr (~$168M) assets under management within 12 months of taking ownership. 415% YoY AUM growth. A product that started as an underperforming tab in a payments app became a scaled investment business.
What this taught me
"Growth is not a campaign. It is a system of barriers removed, one by one, until the right users flow through naturally. The job of a PM in a 0-to-1 growth context is to find the highest-leverage barrier at each stage — and then build the thing that removes it permanently, not patches it temporarily."