The team at a boutique within a Midwestern mutual fund firm is rolling out a pair of new ETFs as they celebrate a big milestone.

Eduardo A. Repetto Avantis Investors Chief Investment Officer

Yesterday, Eduardo Repetto, chief investment officer of American Century's [profile] Avantis Investors, unveiled the launch of the Avantis All Equity Markets ETF (AVGE on the NYSE Arca) and of the Avantis Inflation Focused Equity ETF (AVIE). Repetto also confirms that this month is the three-year anniversary of Avantis' first products: five ETFs that debuted in September 2019.

The launch of AVIE and AVGE brings Avantis up to 18 ETFs now in total, plus nine mutual funds, across 19 different strategies. (Avantis also offers SMAs and ETF models.) Repetto and Pat Keating, Avantis' chief operating officer, teamed up back in 2019 to launch Avantis within American Century. Since then, the boutique has grown to more than 30 people and nearly $14 billion in AUS (as of August 31). (By comparison, all of American Century has 1,400 employees in total and.)

"In September 2019, Avantis Investors became more than just an idea, and we introduced our first equity strategies into the marketplace," Repetto states.

The inception date for both AVGE and AVIE was Tuesday. AVGE, which comes with an expense ratio of 23 basis points (including a 2-bps fee waiver promised through September 20, 2023), had $503,000 in AUM as of yesterday. AVIE, which comes with an expense ratio of 25 bps, had $1.006 million in AUM as of yesterday.

Both are new funds are series of the American Century ETF. They are actively managed, with American Century Investment Management, Inc. as their investment adviosr and American Century Services, LLC as administrator. Both funds are run by the same, five-person PM team: Matthew Dubin, associate portfolio manager; Mitchell Firestein, senior portfolio manager; Daniel Ong, senior portfolio manager; Ted Randall, senior portfolio manager; and Repetto himself. AVGE is also Avantis' first ever fund-of-funds.

"Avantis exists to take commonsense investment principles and incorporate the latest academic research to build investment strategies," Repetto states. "With a focus on clients and their goals, we built AVIE to address the needs of investors who are sensitive to inflation but still want equity-like returns, and AVGE, as our first fund-of-funds, to fill a gap for cliients looking for a single option total-market equity exposure with an emphasis on higher expected returns."

The new funds' other service providers include: Deloitte & Touche LLP as independent accounting firm; Foreside Fund Services, LLC as distributor; and State Street Bank and Trust Company as custodian, securities lending agent, sub-administrator, and transfer agent. 

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