Daybreak - 360 One wrote the wealth-management playbook. Now it is learning a hard lesson

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

On paper, 360 One Wealth and Asset Management looks flawless: a ₹42,000 crore market cap, among India’s largest pools of assets under management, and a co-founder CEO with a near-mythical reputation.But beneath that shine, the cracks are widening. Within a year, three of its most influential leaders—including co-CEO Anirudh Taparia—walked out, with over 100 employees following. Promoters and insiders are offloading stock, and even early backers like Bain Capital are quietly easing out.Officially, 360 One insists attrition is low and the fortress is intact. But industry insiders say otherwise—that the real impact of these exits is only beginning to play out.In this episode, we dig into the unraveling of an industry darling. Why are star rainmakers leaving? How deep does the unease among shareholders run? And what does it say about the future of wealth management in India as younger, more nimble rivals rise?Tune in. Do you work in IT? Take our surveyWant to join The Ken's team? Fill this form. 

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Ramon, Ganesh, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production. Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording.

Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get an alert as soon as we release our first episode, please follow Intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. For 361 wealth and asset management, everything looks sort of perfect on paper.

But once you start taking a closer look, well, that's when the cracks quickly start to emerge. Just this year, some of the company's biggest rainmakers all walked out the door. These were the people who helped build the wealth management firm into an industry darling with a 42,000 crore market gap. In April, Vikram Malhotra, who led its international businesses left. And right after him, in May, Shahji Kumar DeWakar, the face of its southern operations, also decided to leave. Way before both of them, co-CEO Aneurot Tapparia, had quit to long.

his own rival firm. And it gets worse. The thing is, they didn't leave alone. According to one industry executive, an estimate of more than a hundred employees may have followed them out. And this has brought the 361 journey to an unmistakable loosening of ties. That's between 361 and some of its earliest backers, its institutional shareholders and even its founders.

What's currently happening is this. Promoters and insiders have been offloading stock with growing urgency. In July alone, shares worth nearly 480 crore rupees changed hands. And as of June 2025, the promoter stake had fallen to about 6%. Even the founders, Karin Bhagat and Yatyn Shah had shaved off a bit by about 2% over the last two years. Bain Capital 361's largest shareholder has also eased out by selling off some of its shares. basically a lot is happening and it's only adding to the tension

to be fair though 361 is still a formidable fortress it manages more assets than any other wealth manager in India 5.2 lakh crore from its high and ultra high net worth clients and its co-founder and CEO Karan Bhagat is still spoken about with awe

he's praised as a number whiz with a golden touch 361 admitted that some senior employees have struck out on their own in wealth management. But the spokesperson also maintained that its attrition remains among the industry's lowest, both annually and overtime. Now, as per the Ken's calculations, attrition stands at 8 to 10% of its 1,200 strong workforce. While Bhaga told analysts in July that senior exits would account for no more than a 4% to 6% hitter assets under management, most industry insiders the Ken spoke to believe that the real impact is set to unfold in the quarters to come.

The attrition is just a symptom, though. A sign that as 361 grows larger, it's slowly losing the edge at once carved out in a nascent wealth management market to the younger, more agile rivals. Hello and welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host Rahil Philippos and I Don't Chase the News Cycle. Instead, every day of the week, my colleagues Nikda Sharma and I will come to you with one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Wednesday, the 20th of August. In January, 361 made a rather unusual move. It bought BNK Securities, which is a 150-year-old brokerage firm for nearly 1900 crore rupees in a mix of cash and stock.

Now, 361 is a pure play wealth manager. So this deal did raise quite a few eyebrows. You see, brokerages typically fetch lower valuations and 361 had long prided itself on being light on the assets and heavy on the advisory. This move, though, it had nothing to do with growth. You see, this move was a necessity. Until recently, 361 had been receiving a steady stream of leads

from IIFL capital, the institutional broking arm of IIFL group, and a close ally since 361's very inception. Unfortunately, that relationship soured after Bain Capital joined the board in 2022 and shifted control more squarely into the hands of managing director Karan Bhagat and co-CEO Yat. And according to at least two people close to the company, IIFL's founders Nirmal Jeyer and Gyrish Vinkatraman ended up feeling sidelined. An insider told us that Bhaagat and Jain had been having differing points of view in growing 361 for a while, and it eventually began to show. The real tension, though,

traces back to an earlier period, when Baghat brought in Bain Capital, rebranded the firm, and began reshaping its whole strategy. By 2024, IIFL Capital told 361 that it would now be treated like any other client, and their relationship would be on a commercial basis, which would mean that the steady flow of leads would stop. Now, the firm was left with very little choice. It either had to build its own broking and institutional platform or turn to another partner. The fact that a former disruptor is now scrambling to patch distribution gaps

speaks volumes about how sharply the industry and the firm has changed. You see, 15 years ago, 361 was the pioneer in this space. Most banks at the time were treating private wealth as a glorified product desk. mutual funds, fixed deposits, and insurance bundled into a relationship manager's sales quota. International banks, of course, focused on NRIs. So, very few offered end-to-end advice for wealthy domestic clients. According to many industry executives who spoke with the Ken, BhaGAT changed that. In 2008, Bhaat and Shah left Kotaq wealth to strike out on their own, backed by a $3 million investment from Jen.

Their pitch, it was radical. Build a one-stop advisory firm for India's rich. They offered a full range of services from investing in different asset classes to managing family wealth legacy and much, much more. They ended up building an agile, founder-led firm with an institutional muscle from IIFL and the credibility of a differentiated model.

But that equation began to shift once Bain enter the picture. The firm professional-like. the board and gave the founding team more autonomy. And that's when internal trust started eroding. More on that in the next segment. For a firm built on trust, 361 is struggling to hold on to its most important asset. It's rainmakers.

Many senior wealth managers have left the firm in recent years, lured by rivals offering more autonomy and far fewer bottlenecks. You see, Bain's professionalization of the company began to tick off a few people. They joined a lean, four-level business, and now it had transitioned into a bureaucratic structure with at least 10 levels between juniors and senior management. Many also pointed to delays in receiving the performance-linked sweeteners they were promised. You know, the incremental payouts tied to each deal that they closed. They were beginning to feel short-changed on the revenue sharing,

especially considering the amount of personal effort that wealth management advisory demands. We're not kidding. The effort runs really, really deep. An ex-employee told us that they've had clients asked them to find a finance explainer video for their son. Once they even pinged them to find a plumber for a bathroom fix. So they argued that when the job extends beyond returns to relationship maintenance, compensation has to follow.

You see, wealth management, unlike other parts of finance, is very difficult to automate. At its core, it's a relationship business and trust travels through people. While 361 has created over $200 millionaires through its ESOPs, insiders say the bigger friction isn't money, its voice. The now top-heavy structure is veering into micromanagement.

A former employee also noted that few fund managers last more than three or four years at the firm. Of course, that's how the new-age players are scored. Wealth tech firms like Neo Wealth, for instance, offer up to 60% revenue share, closer to the partner-driven models seen in consulting firms like KPMG or Deloitte. For top performers, it's a pretty attractive trade. More autonomy, more upside. More on the new competitors in the next segment.

Stay tuned. Hi, as some of you already know, I also host introduced the Ken's podcast on the future of careers and workplaces. It's called 90,000 hours, and it's available on the Ken app and on Apple Podcasts. I'm currently working on a new episode about how India's IT services industry is changing, from how companies hire, to how performance is measured, to how AI is reshaping grows. And I want to hear from you. If you work in IT, please could you take a few minutes to fill out our quick and confidential survey?

Your responses will directly help shape this episode. You'll find the survey link in the show notes below. And with that, let's get back to the episode. Despite the exodus of top talent and fraying ties with partnerships, the 17-year-old 361 still remains a formidable giant. At its core, 361 is still an intense revenue machine. Roughly 70% of the firm's income is recurring, a steady, predictable stream that many rivals would probably envy.

But others, well, they're catching up fast. A new wave of venture and PE-backed challengers like Neo wealth, deserve, centricity, they're coming at 361. These firms have the advantage of using tech, aggressive pricing and generous revenue-sharing models to attract both clients as well as advisors. For instance, Neo's compensation system is modeled after professional services firms. Relationship managers receive commissions, bonuses, ESOPs, and even a share of the profits. The firm is also poached heavily from 361, including Shahji Kumar, Devankar, and much of his former team. What's perhaps more interesting is that even 361's earliest backers

are circling back with intent. Jeanne and Venkat Raman of IIFL are reportedly planning a new wealth management venture of their own, and they've begun headhunting senior talent, including from their old firm. It's kind of a familiar landscape for founders, Bhaqadha. than Shar. But well, from the other side, almost two decades ago, they were the upstarts. They were the ones prying clients away from the sleepy private banking desks. But today, they are the ones being challenged by faster, flatter, and sometimes hungrier firms, chasing the seat they once claimed for themselves.

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters and podcast extras. Head to the ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the website. Today's episode was hosted by Rahil Filippo's and edited by Rajiv Sien.