MUMBAI, Dec. 12 -- Axis Asset Management Company (AMC) is set to launch its third private credit alternative investment fund (AIF) next week, aiming to raise up to Rs.2,000 crore, a senior executive told Mint. The move comes as the fund house looks to scale sharply in a private-credit market that is drawing record interest even as traditional lenders pull back. "We are launching the fund next week and expect the first close by end-February," said Nachiket Naik, head of structured credit at Axis AMC. "This fund will be double the size of the previous one because we see adequate demand and a strong pipeline." With its previous fund fully deployed, Axis is moving fast to capture the momentum in structured credit. Private-credit deployment in India hit $9 billion across 79 deals above $10 million in the first half of 2025, a 53% jump from a year earlier, according to an August EY report. Stable rate expectations and widening financing gaps in infrastructure and real estate helped lift activity. Globally, the private credit market exceeds $3 lakh crore, EY estimated, while PwC pegged India's market at roughly $10 billion in deal size in 2024, with assets under management near $25 billion. Axis AMC is India's eighth-largest mutual fund house with assets under management (AUM) of about Rs.3.7 lakh crore, of which roughly Rs.2.1 lakh crore is in equities and Rs.1.2 lakh crore in fixed income as of November. The fund house entered the AIF business in 2019 and now manages nearly Rs.7,000 crore across its AIFs, portfolio management services, private credit and private equity strategies. Axis' Fund III will target an initial corpus of Rs.1,000 crore with a green-shoe option for another Rs.1,000 crore. Axis launched its last credit vehicle in mid-2023 with a target of around Rs.1,250 crore and closed it at Rs.740 crore. "The last fund, Rs.740 crore, has been almost fully deployed and is running returns in line with the promised ~14%," Naik said, adding that he expects similar performance from the new vehicle....