St. Pete investment giant acquires European ETF

ARK Invest LLC acquired Rize ETF Limited, a European "thematic" exchange-traded fund, the company says Tuesday in a news release.

ARK Invest is the parent of St. Petersburg-based ARK Investment Management LLC, the investment manager led by CEO and well-kniown Wall Street tech stock guru Cathie Wood. ARK is a federally registered investment adviser and privately held investment firm.

The transaction "marks a significant milestone in ARK Invest's global expansion strategy and will pave the way for the firm to introduce its suite of cutting-edge innovation ETFs … to investors across Europe, the United Kingdom, and beyond, while also facilitating the sustained growth and expansion of Rize ETF's thematic products."

Thematic investing "enables your clients to invest in long-term trends or themes," according to Fidelity Investments, such as disruptive telecommunications companies, disruptive automation companies, and disruptive medical and surgical companies.

"Today's acquisition advances ARK Invest's commitment to offer high-quality thematic investment solutions to a global investor audience, particularly European investors who have not been able to access our products," says Wood, co-founder, CEO and CIO of ARK Invest. "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 says Rize ETF's inclusion with ARK's "innovative, actively managed approach centered on disruptive innovation" will offer clients "a more diverse array of investment options to invest in the future."

Rize ETF is a European provider of thematic and sustainable investing, ARK officials say. It was founded in 2019. The name and brand of Rize ETF will be phased out, and the platform will transition into "ARK Invest Europe," the companies say.

As of Aug. 31, Rize ETF managed $452 million in assets in 11 ETFs. ARK managed approximately $25 billion in ETFs and other products globally.