Fintech Innovation: How to Access This Growing Industry

Innovative developments and new technologies has helped advance various industries, including the financial services segment where Fintech, a combination of finance and technology, has made it easier to manage financial operations.

On the upcoming webcast, Fintech Innovation: How to Access This Growing Industry, Renato Leggi, Client Portfolio Manager for ARK Invest, and Maximilian Friedrich, Analyst at ARK Invest, will delve into the innovative Fintech space and outline potential investment strategies that can help financial advisors access this quickly growing industry.

The ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) can help ETF investors capitalize on the burgeoning fintech industry. ARKF is the firm’s fifth actively managed exchange-traded fund (ETF), and seventh ETF overall.

ARKF invests in equity securities of companies that ARK believes are shifting financial services and economic transactions to technology infrastructure platforms, ultimately revolutionizing financial services by creating simplicity and accessibility while driving down costs.

According to ARK Invest, a company is considered a part of the Fintech innovation if it derives a significant portion of its revenue or market value from the theme of Fintech innovation, or it has stated its primary business to be in products and services focused on the theme of Fintech innovation.

The portfolio managers define “Fintech innovation” as the introduction of a technologically enabled new product or service that potentially changes the way the financial sector works, including companies that are engaged in Transaction Innovations 29%, Blockchain Technology 12%, Risk Transformation 15%, Frictionless Funding Platforms 19%, Customer Facing Platforms 17% and New Intermediaries 8%.

The companies are powered by innovations and are working to disintermediate or bypass the current financial markets and challenge traditional institutions by offering new solutions that are better, cheaper, faster, and more novel and secure.

Specific sector weights include information technology 40.3%, financials 21.9%, communication services 16.6%, consumer discretionary 14.8%, industrials 3.7% and health care 2.6%. Top holdings include Square Inc 9.2%, LendingTree 6.2%, Tencent Holdings 6.2%, Apple 5.2%, Amazon 4.5% and Zillow Group 4.1%.

Financial advisors who are interested in learning more about the financial technology segment can register for the Thursday, February 21 webcast here.