At Loup Ventures, research is in our blood. The spirit of our team has always lived on the curiosity to discover new insights that yield investment opportunities. For years we did this on Wall Street, focused on public tech companies. Now we invest in private frontier tech companies, but public companies like Tesla, Nvidia, and others are also meaningful innovators in frontier tech.  These public companies are shaping the emergence of AI, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and AR/VR just as much as early stage startups. As a result, we’ve always kept a watchful eye on public market participants to inform our private investment strategy.

Today, we’re excited to launch the Loup Frontier Tech Index, a new way for investors to leverage our research-driven approach. The index tracks the performance of a basket of publicly traded frontier tech stocks via a rules-based methodology.

We’re also proud to announce that we’ve licensed the index to Innovator Capital Management as the basis for the Innovator Loup Frontier Tech ETF on the NYSE Arca under ticker LOUP.

The vision of Loup Ventures has always been to build the leading techology investment platform, enabling investors to leverage our research in multiple ways. Today’s launch is another step toward delivering on that vision.

See the full media release below:

Loup Ventures Licenses the Loup Frontier Tech Index to Innovator Capital Management

• Research-driven Frontier Tech Index provides exposure to Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Autonomous Vehicles, Computer Perception, and Virtual/Mixed/Augmented Reality

MINNEAPOLIS, MN July 23, 2018 – Loup Ventures, LLC announced today it has licensed the Loup Frontier Tech Index to Innovator Capital Management, LLC as the basis for their upcoming listing of the Innovator Loup Frontier Tech ETF on the NYSE Arca.

The Loup Frontier Tech Index is a rules-based index designed to track the performance of leading, publicly-traded companies that are influencing the future of technology in areas including, but not limited to, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, autonomous vehicles, computer perception, virtual/mixed/augmented reality, and other similarly disruptive innovations.

Major technology shifts tend to happen every 10-15 years. There was the PC in the 80s, the Internet in the 90s, and the smartphone in the mid-2000s. The next major shift is likely to take the form of multiple new technologies combining to build on the three previous revolutions. The Loup Frontier Tech Index focuses on those technologies deemed most likely to form the next wave of disruption in consumer and enterprise businesses over the next several decades.

“The Loup Frontier Tech Index encompasses a broad range of technology themes that we believe will collectively lead the next major technological revolution,” said Gene Munster, Managing Partner at Loup Ventures. “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 Loup Frontier Tech Index spans across fast-growing frontier technology themes yielding exposure to highly disruptive companies that are under-represented or overlooked in most traditional technology indexes,” said Bruce Bond, Chief Executive Officer of Innovator Capital Management. “We are proud to be partnering with Gene Munster and the authoritative frontier technology research team at Loup Ventures.”

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): Companies that provide software services to automate industrial, knowledge work, and consumer processes. These services may directly automate specific processes or provide semi-automated tools as an intermediate step to full automation.
• Robotics: Companies that provide physical robots and related products and services for industrial, collaborative, agricultural, medical, and/or consumer-related automation.
• Autonomous Vehicles: Companies that provide hardware and/or software used in the development of self-driving cars, unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), or other autonomous vehicles that operate on the ground, in the air, or in the sea.
• Computer Perception: Companies that provide hardware and software related to enabling vision, which could include sensors, laser arrays, semiconductors, etc.
• Virtual/Mixed/Augmented Reality: Companies that are involved in creating hardware and/or software for delivering immersive virtual reality experiences or for delivering experiences that enhance with real world with a digital overlay.

About Loup Ventures, LLC

Loup Ventures is a research-driven venture capital firm with offices in Minneapolis and New York. The firm invests in frontier tech companies leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, robotics, autonomous vehicles, neurotechnology, and virtual/mixed/augmented reality. Loup Ventures was founded by Gene Munster, Doug Clinton, and Andrew Murphy, former sell-side equity analysts at Piper Jaffray. The team covered the Internet space together and was known for its coverage of Apple, Amazon, and Facebook, among other names. In 2016, the team was ranked as high as #1 overall by TipRanks, an independent investment analyst ranking platform. deepwatermgmt.com

About Innovator Capital Management, LLC

Innovator Capital Management, LLC is an SEC registered investment advisor (RIA) based in Wheaton, IL. Formed in 2014, the firm is currently headed by ETF visionaries Bruce Bond and John Southard, founders of one of the largest ETF providers in the world. Innovation is our hallmark and acts as a guide to our company principles. Innovator is committed to helping investors better control their financial outcomes by providing investment opportunities they never considered or thought possible. www.innovatoretfs.com

Media Contact | Andrew Murphy | 612-865-0578 | etf@deepwatermgmt.com

Disclaimer: We actively write about the themes in which we invest: virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and robotics. From time to time, we will write about companies that are in our portfolio. Content on this site including opinions on specific themes in technology, market estimates, and estimates and commentary regarding publicly traded or private companies is not intended for use in making investment decisions. We hold no obligation to update any of our projections. We express no warranties about any estimates or opinions we make.