Less than one month in, a startup, anti-ESG fund firm's team lays claim to their flagship's launch being the biggest non-seeded ETF launch of the year.

Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy Strive Asset Management, LLC Co-Founder, Executive Chairman

The Strive U.S. Energy ETF (DRLL on the NYSE Arca, Inc.) has grown to $318.75 million in AUM as of yesterday, four weeks and one day after its inception on August 9. Last week, Justin Danhof, head of corporate governance at Strive Asset Management, LLC, confirmed that the new fund crossed $300 million in its first three weeks.

Strive (based in Dublin, Ohio, near Columbus) serves as subadvisor to DRLL, while Havertown, Pennsylvania-based Empowered Funds, LLC (dba EA Advisers, aka ETF Architect) serves as the fund's investment advisor. DRLL is passively managed, non-diversified, and designed to track the Solactive United States Energy Regulated Capped Index, from index provider Solactive AG. Strive's Matthew Cole serves as DRLL's PM.

The Strive team describes their approach as offering investors "a depoliticized investment option ... by guiding companies to focus on excellence over politics." With DRLL, the Strive team is specifically concentrating on the energy sector.

"The largest U.S. asset managers have shackled U.S. energy companies with so-called 'Scope 3 emissions caps' and other destructive mandates that contributed to the American energy crisis today," states Vivek Ramaswamy, executive chairman and co-founder of Strive. "The right answer isn't to complain about it, but to solve the problem. We're proud to offer investors a new choice to align their voice and vote with how U.S. energy companies behave — by helping maximize long-run profits over short-run social fads."

"Strive's message to U.S. energy companies is simple: do what is best for shareholder value," Danhof states. "The energy sector has been very receptive to our message. Their openness to our message shows they want to focus solely on delivering excellent products and leave politics to the politicians. We are excited to deliver this new voice to the industry and look forward to continued engagement in the coming months."

The new fund is a series of EA Series Trust and comes with an expense ratio of 41 basis points. It's other service providers include: Cohen & Company, Ltd. as independent accounting firm; Practus, LLC as counsel; Quasar Distributors, LLC as distributor; U.S. Bancorp Fund Services, LLC (dba U.S. Bank Global Fund Services) as administrator, fund accountant, and transfer agent; and U.S. Bank National Association as custodian and securities lending agent. 

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