Cathie Wood's ARK Invest Expands Across UK And Europe, Agrees To Buy Rize ETF

Cathie Wood's ARK Invest acquired Europe's first specialist thematic ETF issuer, Rize ETF.

Rize ETF, which currently manages $452 million in assets across 11 ETFs, was acquired from AssetCo, a U.K. asset and wealth management business.

The deal is expected to assist ARK in providing Rize's thematic products to investors across the U.K. and Europe.

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After the acquisition, Rize ETF will be rebranded as ARK Invest Europe — a division of ARK Invest Ltd.

ARK currently handles $25 billion in ETFs and other products globally.

“We believe that the European ETF market presents a strong growth opportunity as new and younger investors continue to gain access to ETFs via the growth of digital platforms, and as active ETFs increase market share by meeting the demand for innovative investment exposures,” Wood said.

Per Bloomberg Intelligence data, Europe’s ETF market has swelled to $1.6 trillion, compared to less than $500 billion a decade ago. The U.S., meanwhile, has seen a record $2.7 billion exit in thematic ETFs to date in 2023 compared to a $2.4 billion withdrawal in 2022.

Rize ETF specializes in thematic and sustainable investing. It was formed in 2019 by Anthony Martin, Jason Kennard, Rahul Bhushan, and Stuart Forbes.

AssetCo acquired a 63% stake in Rize ETF in July 2021 for £16.5 million.

In June, it wrote down Rize ETF value by almost £5 million, stating that it remains “materially behind plan”.

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