Meet GACS, the multi-family office with an eye for Indian investments
Multi-family office GACS believes it is well-positioned to meet increasing demand for investing in India (Unsplash/rupixen)
With its family office holding split between London and Mumbai, GACS is well-positioned to meet the increasing demand for investing in India - or so its chief executive and founder, Anmol Goel, tells AOX.
“A lot of our assets and a lot of our understanding of the Indian subcontinent is fairly strong,” said Goel. “This is a moment where a lot of families want to enter that market and strategy. So we are utilising our network, our resources, to make sure we can double down and make more money on that side of things.”
GACS operates a public fund arm of an Indian family office, Ashika Global Family Office, focused on Indian equities. It used to be more involved in the US equity market, but is currently holding more liquid positions in cash.
The family office operates a venture studio through which it allocates to technology for equity and sales for equity. It invests in start-ups at the pre-seed and seeding stage, as well as a venture capital fund that seeds early growth, series A and series B start-ups.
It also has a private credit investment arm, which it uses to invest in companies that generate anywhere between $5mn and $100mn in revenue annually.
Crucially, however, GACS’s venture capital fund, Arya Ventures, will only invest in companies with at least one founder of the Indian diaspora.
In Goel’s opinion, “the diaspora does significantly well in the UK and US compared to the general population”. Furthermore, according to Goel, start-ups of Indian origin will often have a back office holding in India. This makes it easier for GACS to expand while India grows more proficient in the business-to-business side of the marketplace.
“If we can get the leverage which we have on the B2B side in western markets, and then couple that with the B2C side of a consumption-driven behemoth like India, we can really maximise returns over the next decade,” added Goel.
He acknowledged that heritage can be an important factor in driving investment decisions, at least for ultra-wealthy families.
“Typically you will see diaspora families trying to do more from their homeland,” said Goel. At the same time, those that have invested primarily in their own country for the last several generations will often look for outside exposure in the US and UK.
Aside from India, Goel is also keeping his eye on Japan and will spend some time there in spring 2026, to see what possible opportunities exist.
He noted a shift in investor appetite from the US into the Middle East, specifically Saudi Arabia: “We’re retargeting our efforts for the mid-term, but [are] now still very much focusing on the returns on the US market, because ultimately it makes up almost 50 per cent of the world venture and private equity market.”
The family office also has its eye on the commodities market. It plans to hold gold until 2026 and has recently made a small investment in silver. The volatility of the oil market at present means the firm is waiting before buying oil again in a larger capacity.
As one would perhaps expect from an investor who does a lot of work in an industrial powerhouse like India, Goel is sceptical of whether environmental, social and governance-tilted investing is truly applicable for investors seeking the highest financial returns.
“If you want impact as a primary focus of what you’re doing, go the philanthropic way. And if you want returns, go the investment way. Don’t try and combine the two together and try and maximise, because they’ll never work,” he said.
Indeed, for Goel, ESG was a “good narrative”, but faced substantial – and often, financially detrimental – roadblocks when being put into practice.
So, what’s next for GACS? Currently, the firm is waiting to see how wars between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Palestine fare. It has partners in Ukraine and Israel, and wants to deploy several strategies in both countries across the health technology sector, as well as in construction and redevelopment.
The family office is also increasing its liquidity in public markets, as it anticipates an economic downturn towards the end of the year. Not that Goel is worried––in his words, GACS has “a long hedge fund strategy” and, after all, “there’s no such thing as perfect sailing”.