Innovator Capital Management has launched a new thematic equity ETF – the Innovator Loup Frontier Tech ETF (LOUP US) – providing exposure to ‘frontier technologies’.
Bruce Bond, chief executive officer of Innovator Capital Management.
The NYSE Arca-listed fund provides passively managed access to stocks of companies developing technologies that are deemed most likely to disrupt consumer and enterprise businesses over the next several decades.
This includes firms operating in artificial intelligence (AI), computer perception, robotics, autonomous vehicles, virtual reality, and other similarly disruptive innovations.
The fund is linked to the Loup Frontier Tech Index, designed by Minneapolis-based venture capital firm Loup Ventures.
The index uses a smart beta approach to assign index weights, taking an equally weighted basket of stocks and tilting weights in favour of those that are projected to grow revenue, earnings and cash flow the fastest.
There are currently 31 constituents in the index, from 12 different countries, and with representation from across the market-cap spectrum. The largest country weights are US (46%), Japan, Switzerland, UK and Austria, while Information Technology is the largest sector, with 70.5% weight. The largest holding is UK-based Renishaw, an engineering firm supplying products and services with applications in jet engine manufacture to brain surgery.
Bruce Bond, chief executive officer of Innovator Capital Management, said, “Disruptive technologies are forcing change, transforming business and the global economy at an unprecedented speed, and in some areas may alter the way entire industries operate. The Innovator Loup Frontier Tech ETF ( LOUP ) provides a convenient way for investors to access disruptive companies across five key technological sub-themes, and broad exposure to the next wave of technology innovation.”
Gene Munster, managing partner at Loup Ventures, added, “While some indexes track a particular industry vertical like robotics or artificial intelligence, the Loup Frontier Tech Index seeks to track a broader domain of frontier technologies, which encompass a wide range of innovations that will collectively lead the next major technological revolution. Our research-driven approach and exposure to early-stage technology companies give us confidence in our ability to identify trends before the wider market.”
The fund has expense ratio of 0.70%.