QSIF (Quant)
Our view on their team, the pedigree, the funds & investment philosophy followed.
IME's Review of QSIF (Quant)
| AMC Rating | Pedigree Rating | Team Rating | Philosophy Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
Upgrade | Upgrade | Upgrade | Upgrade |
AMC View
We maintain a neutral stance on the SIF arm of Quant Mutual Fund. While the SIF structure provides access to more sophisticated and differentiated strategies, it remains relatively new and lacks a meaningful track record, warranting caution given the higher complexity and risks involved. Quant Mutual Fund itself is a niche, system-driven AMC with a clearly defined quantitative approach, a strong recent performance record, and an owner-managed structure. However, the platform remains highly dependent on Sandeep Tandon and follows a relatively aggressive investment style, making the SIF offering more suitable for investors with a higher risk appetite who are comfortable with limited operating history.
AMC Pedigree
QSIF operates within Quant Mutual Fund, an AMC that has scaled rapidly over the past five years to over ₹90,000 crore in AUM by building a differentiated, system-driven investment culture. While the SIF platform itself is new, its pedigree is anchored in Quant’s long-standing focus on proprietary analytics and cycle-based investing.
Team Pedigree
QSIF’s investment team is heavily anchored in the expertise of Sandeep Tandon, who brings over 27 years of capital markets experience and has been a central driver behind the success and scale of Quant Mutual Fund
Investment Philosophy
At the AMC level, QSIF reflects Quant’s core philosophy of Systematic Active Investing, which blends structured, rules-based decision frameworks with discretionary oversight to stay adaptive across market cycles. The approach emphasises objectivity, continuous recalibration based on evolving data, and extensive use of proprietary analytics to dynamically manage risk and exposure, rather than relying on static views or rigid style classifications
AMC Background
Quant Mutual Fund originated as Escorts Mutual Fund, established in 1996 and registered with SEBI as one of India's earliest AMCs. In February 2018, Quant Capital Finance & Investments Private Limited acquired Escorts MF with AUM of ₹235 crore. Under founder and CIO Sandeep Tandon's leadership, the firm transformed from ₹135 crore AUM at March 2020 to ₹90,000+ crore.
Tandon founded Quant after 27 years in capital markets, including roles as founding member at IDBI Asset Management (where he conceptualized IDBI I-NITS 95), vice president at ICICI Securities establishing the equity derivatives desk, and stints at Kotak Securities, REFCO, and Economic Times Research Bureau. He was an early participant in India's Badla market and pioneered derivatives trading in institutional equities before launching Quant.
Investment Philosophy
MARCOV is Quant’s proprietary portfolio construction and exposure-management framework that combines high-frequency market analytics (~70%) with lower-frequency fundamental and macro inputs (~30%) to dynamically position portfolios across market regimes. The system ingests real-time signals such as price action, liquidity, volatility behaviour, order-flow patterns, and sentiment to detect regime shifts and market stress early, while the low-frequency layer provides broader macro and fundamental context. Portfolio allocations are model-generated but are subject to a human oversight layer, where money managers validate positioning before deployment. In long–short strategies, MARCOV actively adjusts gross and net exposure, shifting between hedged and directional stances based on market conditions, with longs typically drawn from the broader all-cap universe and shorts selected from liquid derivative-eligible stocks. The framework is designed to generate alpha through tactical long-short positioning while aiming to control drawdowns and reduce volatility relative to traditional long-only equity strategies.
Investment team
Sandeep Tandon | 3-star rated FM
CIO | 30 yrs Experience | 18 yrs at current firm
Past Experience: GIC Mutual Fund (Trainee),IDBI Asset Management (Founding Member), ICI Securities, J.P. Morgan (JV), Kotak Securities, Goldman Sachs (JV), REFCO
Sandeep is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of the Quant Group, he brings over 27 years of extensive experience in the capital markets. His remarkable journey in money management began in FY 1992-93 at GIC Mutual Fund, where he commenced as a trainee. Later, he became a founding member at IDBI Asset Management, contributing significantly to the establishment of the asset management business. He also worked at ICI Securities, a JV partner with J.P. Morgan in India, Kotak Securities, a JV partner with Goldman Sachs in India, and the former global derivatives firm REFCO.
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QSIF Equity Long Short
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