About Company
StepTrade Share Services Private Limited
StepTrade Capital, based in Ahmedabad, India, is an investment manager that focuses on small and micro businesses. Kresha Gupta, the youngest female fund manager in India, started the company. It manages over ₹350 crore in assets using SEBI-registered Alternative Investment Funds and Portfolio Management Services.
The company is well-known in the SME IPO market, often serving as an anchor investor using a research-based approach. Their main fund, the Chanakya Opportunities Fund, is the first AIF in India that is totally focused on small company stocks. StepTrade's goal is to achieve strong growth by investing in solid, creative small businesses.
Fund Snapshot
| Fund Attribute | Details |
| Strategy Name | StepTrade SME Fund |
| Asset Manager | StepTrade Share Services (StepTrade Capital) |
| Structure Type | Portfolio Management Service (PMS) – Discretionary |
| Regulatory Authority | Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) |
| Principal Lead | CA Kresha Gupta |
| Fund Manager | Ankush Kumar Jain |
| Target Universe | Listed SME Exchange equities (NSE Emerge / BSE SME) |
| Market Cap Focus | Inflection-zone companies (Typically ₹200 Crore to ₹500 Crore) |
| Primary Benchmark | S&P BSE 500 TRI |
| Minimum Investment | ₹50 Lakhs (Statutory minimum for Indian PMS platforms) |
| Investment Horizon | Medium to Long Term (Minimum 3 to 5 years recommended) |
Overview
The StepTrade SME Fund is a specialized, open-ended portfolio management strategy dedicated exclusively to finding value in small and medium-sized enterprises listed on India’s junior boards. It targets micro-cap public businesses that operate in the "inflection zone." These are entities that have successfully scaled past early-stage startup friction and possess stable, revenue-generating operations, but remain undiscovered or under-researched by mainstream institutional brokerages.
A primary focus of this open-ended PMS framework is identifying highly resilient businesses that have clear visibility of migrating to the NSE or BSE mainboards within a short timeline. By providing sophisticated public equity management to high-net-worth allocators, the strategy positions itself to capture early-stage public wealth creation before these companies undergo the significant valuation re-ratings that typically follow institutional mainboard discovery.
Investment Philosophy
The StepTrade SME Fund follows a structural, research-heavy investment framework designed to manage the high risks and maximize the alpha potential of micro-cap investing. Its philosophy relies on three distinct pillars:
I. The Mainboard Migration Arbitrage
The core thesis hinges on capturing the value-unlocking phase when a company transitions from a restricted SME platform to the primary stock exchange. Migration brings a structural influx of institutional liquidity, mandatory mutual fund allocation eligibility, and expanded retail participation. The strategy aims to secure positions twelve to twenty-four months ahead of this transition to maximize the gains from valuation multiplier expansions.
II. On-Ground Fundamental Validation (Scuttlebutt Research)
Because quantitative data and corporate filings can be sparse or incomplete in the micro-cap space, the team places immense weight on real-world verification. They utilize the classic "scuttlebutt" method—visiting factories, auditing production capacities, reviewing order book visibility, and interviewing management promoters, regional suppliers, and customers. This process helps ensure that the company’s physical scale matches its financial statements.
III. Forensic Corporate Governance & Risk Moats
In SME investing, avoiding structural failures is just as crucial as finding winners. The fund enforces a strict filtering mechanism that prioritizes capital protection. It filters out high leverage, poor working capital conversions, and opaque promoter accounting structures. The strategy actively targets high-growth sectors backed by structural tailwinds—such as green energy ancillaries, defense manufacturing, and import-substitution setups—ensuring the portfolio backs cash-flow-healthy operations led by high-integrity promoters.
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Kresha Gupta
Kresha Gupta is an investment professional who specializes in SME and microcap strategies, emphasizing disciplined research, risk management, and scalable growth opportunities. She is the Director and Fund Manager at Steptrade Capital, an investment management firm that operates in all three SEBI-registered AIF categories and holds an FPI license. Kresha, a Chartered Accountant who qualified at the age of 20, brings extensive financial knowledge and over seven years of experience in the capital markets. She oversees Steptrade Capital's SME and microcap investment initiatives, including the Chanakya Opportunities Fund—India's first SME-focused AIF—and the Steptrade Revolution Funds I and II. Her investment strategy is based on rigorous bottom-up research, promoter assessment, and identifying innovation-driven businesses with long-term value creation potential. Kresha's accomplishments demonstrate her enthusiasm for learning, adaptability, and unwavering commitment to promoting business growth in India. By constantly evolving her strategies and staying ahead of market trends, she remains committed to maximising value for her investors and shaping the future of investments. Her market insights and perspectives have been covered by CNBC Awaaz, Moneycontrol, the Economic Times, Business World, and the Financial Times. She is still making an impact on India's investment landscape today by using a data-driven, innovation-oriented, and institutionally aligned fund management approach.
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The strategy concentrates entirely on unlocking alpha by capturing early-stage growth in under-researched corners of the Indian corporate ecosystem. The investment mandates target businesses listed on the NSE Emerge and BSE SME platforms, alongside selective allocations in high-potential unlisted spaces poised for near-term public listings. The framework is strictly sector-agnostic, choosing instead to focus purely on the structural growth trends and capital efficiencies of specific enterprises.
The asset management firm is spearheaded by its group founder, Kresha Gupta, a Chartered Accountant with extensive experience in corporate treasury, investor relations, and private family office management. She is recognized for establishing early milestones in the institutionalized SME investment domain in India. The day-to-day portfolio operations, equity valuation, and active deployment are co-managed by Ankush Kumar Jain alongside a specialized team of financial analysts.
The StepTrade Revolution series operates under a Category III Alternative Investment Fund registration, specifically structured as close-ended pools. These vehicles are designed to leverage distinct pre-IPO entry points, Qualified Institutional Buyer placements, and anchor investor quotas that are completely inaccessible to retail participants. They utilize a distinct multi-year lock-in framework, usually featuring structured capital drawdowns to match tactical asset allocation opportunities.
The emphasis stems from historical data trends showing massive corporate transitions, highlighted by the reality that over forty percent of historically sound SME enterprises eventually migrate to the mainboard exchanges. This transition unlocks significant institutional liquidity and valuation re-rating. Furthermore, the immense oversubscription rates and the structural expansion seen in indices like the BSE SME IPO index offer a faster compounding environment compared to matured, large-cap companies.
These strategies occupy the absolute highest tier of the capital market risk spectrum. Small and micro-cap securities carry systemic liquidity constraints, meaning entering or exiting large positions during market panics can trigger substantial impact costs. Additionally, these businesses are vulnerable to corporate governance swings and broader economic volatility, making the platform ideal only for aggressive investors with a minimum horizon of three to five years.
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Disclaimer: Investing in AIF, PMS, Gift City or Mutual Fund is subject to market risk. Please read the related documents carefully. Past performance does not guarantee future results and there is no assurance that the managed accounts will necessarily achieve their objectives. Actual portfolios may differ as a result of account size, client-imposed investment restrictions, the timing of client investments and market, economic, and individual company factors. We at ALTPORT do not guarantee any returns in the hands of investors, nor do we take any sort of accountability for the performance of the scheme.