Collective Investment Management Companies (CIMCs) are entities that raise funds by pooling investor money into schemes investing in physical assets like plantations and real estate — distinct from mutual funds. SEBI registers and regulates CIMCs under the SEBI (Collective Investment Schemes) Regulations, 1999. The registry lists all currently registered CIMCs. These entities must obtain a certificate of registration from SEBI before launching any collective investment scheme and must comply with continuous disclosure and investor protection norms.

A Collective Investment Scheme (CIS) is any arrangement that pools money from investors to generate returns from physical assets or any property — but is not a mutual fund, NBFC deposit, or chit fund. The legal boundary matters: if an entity mobilises public funds through such pooling without SEBI registration, it violates the SEBI Act, 1992 (Section 11AA defines CIS) and the CIS Regulations, 1999.

SEBI is the sole registering authority for CIMCs. To be registered, a CIMC must: be incorporated as a company under the Companies Act, have a minimum net worth of ₹5 crore, and have its scheme documents approved by SEBI before launch. Each scheme must have a corpus of at least ₹20 crore before it can be subscribed publicly.

The distinction from mutual funds is critical: mutual funds are regulated under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 and pool money into financial securities, while CIMCs pool into physical assets. Both are SEBI-regulated, but through separate regulatory frameworks.

Historically, CIS frauds (plantation and agro schemes in the 1990s–2000s) prompted tighter regulation. SEBI has enforcement powers to wind up unregistered CIS entities. The list of registered CIMCs on SEBI's website is the authoritative registry — exam questions test whether candidates know the registering authority and the key thresholds.