Shyam Sekhar
Founder and CIO of ithought, and the named fund manager on four of the firm’s seven investment approaches — the multi-asset book is filed under another partner. An investor who says he deliberately never worked inside the industry before starting his own firm — twenty-one years investing his own way first, and a research desk built in Chennai rather than Mumbai.
Is Shyam worth your time?
Well attributed on two strategies, and behind on both. APMI’s per-approach filings name him fund manager on Solitaire and VRDDHI, ithought’s own factsheet agrees, and the firm’s Principal Officer is somebody else — an attribution that clears in two independent channels. It does not clear on Sphere: the factsheet prints his name on the multi-asset approach, but the firm’s SEBI Disclosure Document and its APMI filing both put Sphere under Niranjan Sridhar, so this page no longer credits it to him. The record is where the caution sits. Over one year to 31 July 2026, Solitaire is −2.66% and VRDDHI −13.82% against a BSE 500 TRI at +2.98%, and VRDDHI’s three-year 4.20% trails the benchmark’s 11.89%. Both are ahead since inception, which is the number the firm leads with and the one a reader should discount most. He is a genuinely independent voice — a weekly columnist under his own byline who founded the firm on a stated refusal to sell products.
Investors who want a genuinely independent, contrarian house and can sit through periods of being wrong-footed. The attribution is unusually well documented, the Principal Officer is a separate person, and each of the two strategies here carries two named co-managers with disclosed qualifications. The firm has recorded zero investor complaints in every year from 2023-24 onward and reports nil against every penalty and litigation head. The partners are fee-paying clients of their own strategies.
- The recent record is poor and the firm publishes it. Over one year to 31 July 2026, Solitaire returned −2.66% and VRDDHI −13.82%, against a BSE 500 TRI at +2.98%. VRDDHI's three-year return of 4.20% also trails the benchmark's 11.89%.
- The comparison that used to soften this has gone. An earlier version of this page set his other two strategies against Sphere, which was ahead of its benchmark across every published window — but Sphere is not his, so it cannot be used as a foil either way. Over one year to 31 July 2026 neither approach on this page beat the benchmark; Solitaire also trails over two years, and VRDDHI over two and three. The since-inception figures the firm leads with are the least informative numbers on the page.
- APMI’s register names him fund manager on four of ithought’s seven investment approaches — Solitaire, TruBlu, VRDDHI and ALPHA. The two named co-managers per strategy are the mitigant, but one person still sits across most of the firm’s equity book.
- The firm's SEBI filing publishes no numeric fee schedule. The rates shown here come from its brochures and website; confirm them in your own agreement.
- ithought publishes no named holdings for either approach on this page — only sector weights and quality metrics. The single top-ten table in its factsheet is for TruBlu, which this page does not cover.
- The firm's own properties disagree on basic facts: its website shows performance to December 2025 while its factsheet site shows July 2026, and its founding is variously dated 2011, 2014 and 2019 across its own material.
- His education is recorded only in the SEBI filing, as “BE Chemical, MPT from IIM Bangalore”. The MPT abbreviation is never expanded and no independent source corroborates it.
About Shyam Sekhar
Shyam Sekhar is the founder of ithought Financial Consulting LLP, the Chennai portfolio manager registered with SEBI as INP000006448. APMI’s investment-approach filings name him fund manager on four of the firm’s seven approaches, including both of the strategies this page covers. The firm's team page titles him CIO & Fund Manager; its SEBI Disclosure Document dated 25 June 2026 records him as Designated Partner and Fund Manager; and its founding essay, still live, is bylined Chief Ideator and Founder.
His account of how he got here is unusual and he has published it himself. “In 1990, when I chose to become an investor, the reactions were strong,” he writes. “I decided that I would be a misfit if I formally worked in the industry even before I started out… I steered clear of working for any firm, fund or financial company within the industry.” He describes twenty-one years investing that way before founding ithought, and gives the reason plainly: “The financial services industry was all about misselling… To keep my integrity intact, I simply never worked for anyone. I remained an Investor.” On what the firm was meant to be: “There was one thing i decided even before I started. I will Not sell anything.”
The firm's SEBI filing records his education as “BE Chemical, MPT from IIM Bangalore” and notes he was a founder director of Smart Value Equisearch Private Limited. He holds no CA, CFA or MBA — the same filing itemises those charters for his colleagues and lists none for him, which is consistent with his own account of staying outside the industry.
He writes a weekly column under his own byline on the firm's site and is an active public commentator. The firm also states he was president of the Tamil Nadu Investors Association from 2012 to 2015 and built the first independent proprietary equity research desk in Chennai; both are the firm's claims and could not be independently confirmed.
Career
- 2019 – present
CIO & Fund Manager, ithought Financial Consulting LLP
The firm received PMS approval on 13 March 2019. APMI’s per-approach filings name him fund manager on four of the firm’s seven investment approaches. His team-page title changed from “Fund Manager” to “CIO & Fund Manager” between May and August 2024, in a site redesign; the firm's Disclosure Document added the fund-manager designation between its November 2024 and June 2026 editions.
- 2014 – present
Designated Partner, ithought Financial Consulting LLP
The LLP was incorporated on 9 September 2014 and held a SEBI investment-adviser registration from 2016, since voluntarily surrendered. The firm's own founding essay dates the idea to 2011, so its origin story and its incorporation date differ.
- 1990 – 2011
Independent investor
By his own published account, twenty-one years investing without working for any firm, fund or financial company — a decision he attributes to not wanting to sell products. This period is self-described and not independently documented.
Six principles
Non-consensus by design
Contrarian positioning is the stated starting point, not a by-product. “The majority always fails to realise that short term investment performance is often the outcome of their own irrational behaviour.”
Back the hidden champion, not the obvious leader
VRDDHI's mandate is explicitly “Undiscovered, Under Owned, Under Researched” — niche market leaders in favourable industry structures rather than the widely-held name.
Diligence beyond the filings
The firm describes private-equity-style work: interviews with employees, ex-employees, competitors, suppliers and customers, plus ten years or more of financials, annual filings, conference calls and AGMs.
A published list of what they will not do
No IPOs, no momentum stocks, no short-term trades, no shorting or derivatives, no leveraged companies, no companies with a governance reputation problem. A negative screen stated as plainly as the positive one.
Concentration with stated limits
Solitaire caps a single sector at 55% of NAV and a single stock at 25%. VRDDHI runs 15–25 positions with roughly 70% in the top ten, capped at 15% per stock at cost and 25% per sector.
The firm was founded on a refusal to sell
From his own founding essay: “There was one thing i decided even before I started. I will Not sell anything.” He gives the same reason for twenty-one years spent outside the industry — “The financial services industry was all about misselling… To keep my integrity intact, I simply never worked for anyone.”
The call that shows the method working
Two channels agree on two strategies — and disagree on a third
On the two strategies this page covers the attribution clears in two independent channels. APMI’s investment-approach record for Solitaire (IAID 1247) and for VRDDHI (IAID 1249) each names “SHYAM SEKHAR” in the fund-manager field, against shyamsek@ithought.co.in. ithought’s own monthly factsheet prints “Fund Manager — Mr. Shyam Sekhar” on both strategy pages, and its SEBI Disclosure Document dated 25 June 2026 records him as “Designated Partner & Fund Manager”. Solitaire’s website FAQ answers the question outright: “Who is the appointed fund manager? The fund is managed by Mr. Shyam Sekhar.”
Crucially, the firm’s Principal Officer is a different person — Niranjan Sridhar. The pattern this site most often has to reject is a founder whose name fills a fund-manager field because he happens to be the firm’s regulatory contact. That is not the case here: APMI’s member register gives shyamsek@ithought.co.in for the CEO/MD and niranjan@ithought.co.in for the Principal Officer.
It does not clear on Sphere, and that is worth stating plainly, because the firm contradicts itself. ithought’s marketing factsheet names Shyam Sekhar fund manager of Sphere, its multi-asset approach. Its SEBI Disclosure Document dated 25 June 2026 does not: at page 11 it records Niranjan Sridhar, “Designated Partner & Principal Officer”, as having “been involved in the fund management function of ithoughtPMS’s multi asset product Sphere since 2021”, and Samyuktha Vibhu “since 2022”; the same section’s entry for Shyam Sekhar mentions no multi-asset product at all. APMI’s filing for Sphere (IAID 1251) names Niranjan Sridhar and contains no occurrence of the name Sekhar. Two of the firm’s filings say one thing and its marketing says another. We follow the filing, so Sphere came off this page on 1 September 2026 — which moved the headline score from 7.56 to 7.84, because the approach we removed scored below the two that remain.
The firm names two co-fund managers on each of the two strategies here, with their qualifications and prior firms. That is a genuine second layer rather than a single name carrying a whole book.
- 1990Begins investing independently, by his own published account.
- 2011Publishes “The Genesis of ithought”, bylined Chief Ideator and Founder.
- 9 Sep 2014ithought Financial Consulting LLP incorporated in Chennai.
- 13 Mar 2019SEBI grants portfolio-management approval, registration INP000006448.
- 30 Aug 2019Solitaire inception — the flagship flexi-cap approach.
- 7 May 2021VRDDHI inception, named after VRDDHI Capital, whose founders joined the firm as its co-managers.
- 16 Dec 2021Sphere inception — the multi-asset approach, which the firm’s SEBI filing and its APMI record both place under Niranjan Sridhar rather than under him.
- Jul–Aug 2024Team-page title changes from “Fund Manager” to “CIO & Fund Manager”.
- 31 Jul 2026Firm AUM about ₹3,670 crore across roughly 1,950 clients; the two approaches on this page hold ₹2,167 crore.
How the strategies have performed
Trailing returns, net of fees, annualised beyond one year. Shown only when sourced and dated; missing figures are unavailable, never zero.
| Strategy | 1Y | 3Y | Since inception |
|---|---|---|---|
| ithought - VRDDHI | +15.67% | — | +22.36% |
| ithought - Solitaire | +33.76% | +32.29% | +24.91% |
Figures are historical, unaudited and third-party reported, as of 2026-06-30. Past performance is not indicative of future returns.
What to press Shyam on
Bring these to the call.
Ask about the last two years, not since inception.
Solitaire and VRDDHI are both behind their benchmark over one and two years, VRDDHI materially so. Ask what changed, whether the process was altered in response, and what the manager thinks he got wrong.
Who actually decides, given two co-managers?
Each strategy names him plus two co-fund managers. Ask how decisions are made between them, who holds final buy and sell authority, and what happens when they disagree.
One name across four of the firm’s seven approaches.
APMI names him fund manager on Solitaire, TruBlu, VRDDHI and ALPHA; the other three approaches sit with Niranjan Sridhar. Ask about succession, and whether the co-managers could run their strategies independently.
Ask for the portfolio.
The firm publishes sector weights and quality metrics for these two approaches but no named holdings. Ask for the current portfolio and the turnover history in writing.
VRDDHI charges a performance fee; the other two do not.
VRDDHI adds 15% above an 8% hurdle with a compounding high water mark. Ask how the hurdle and high water mark are calculated, and get the exact terms in your agreement — the SEBI filing does not publish rates.
How did VRDDHI's team arrive?
The strategy is named after VRDDHI Capital Investment Advisors, whose two founders are its co-managers. No public announcement documents how that came about. Ask about the arrangement and about their retention.
How they compare
Comparable managers on the platform, by asset class and category · live fund figures.
| Manager | 1Y | 3Y | AUM | Nyra |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pratiksha Daftari Aequitas - India Opportunities Product · PMS | +30.1% | +28.5% | ₹0 Cr | 8.6 |
| Rajeev Bajaj Systamatix - Dynamic Investment · PMS | +18.2% | +23.6% | ₹158.52 Cr | 8.4 |
| Madanagopal Ramu Sundaram Alternate - VOYAGER · PMS | +28% | +23.1% | ₹0 Cr | 8.3 |
| PAWAN KUMAR Shade - Value Fund · PMS | +14.9% | +23.7% | ₹0 Cr | 8.2 |
Shyam Sekhar · FAQ
What does Shyam Sekhar manage?
How has the recent performance been?
Who are the co-fund managers?
What are his qualifications?
Is he the firm's Principal Officer?
Does the firm have any complaint or regulatory history?
Considering Shyam's strategy?
We'll pull the current Disclosure Document, the actual fee schedule, and a portfolio-overlap check against what you already own.
PMS Sahi Hai is a distributor (APMI Reg. APRN08358), not a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser. APMI registration does not constitute an endorsement. We are paid by the product manufacturer; this does not change the price you pay. PMS & AIF investments are subject to market risks; past performance is not indicative of future returns. This is not investment advice. PMS Sahi Hai is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with Shyam Sekhar.