A Connecticut ETF shop jumped to the lead last month among small fund firms, according to the latest data from the folks at a publicly traded investment research firm.

Troy Michael Cates NEOS Investments LLC Co-Founder, Managing Partner

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on February 2025 mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money market funds and funds of funds. (Other asset management products, like CITs and SMAs, are also not included.) More specifically, this article focuses on the 489 firms (down by 27 month-over-month* from January 2025 and down by 8 year-over-year from February 2024) with fewer than ten long-term mutual funds and ETFs each.

Neos took the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $590 million in net February 2025 inflows, up by $241 million M/M from January 2025 and up by $450 million Y/Y from February 2024. Other big February 2025 inflows winners included:

Alpha Architect, $356 million (down by $114 million M/M, down by $100 million Y/Y);

Volatility Shares, $287 million (up by $201 million M/M and Y/Y);

Performance Trust, $240 million (up by $103 million M/M, down by $36 million Y/Y); and

Independent Franchise Partners, $230 million (a $248-million net flows improvement M/M and a $234-million net flows jump Y/Y).

Last month, there were four apparent mutual fund and ETF industry newcomers: BattleShares, JLens, PLUS, and the Rock Creek Group.

For the trailing twelve months ending February 28, 2025, Alpha Architect led the small firm inflows pack, thanks to an estimated $4.008 billion in net inflows. Other big TTM inflows winners included: Volatility Shares, $3.267 billion; and Neos, $3.138 billion.

On the flip side, Nuance took the small firm outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $725 million in net February 2025 outflows, up by $660 million M/M from January 2025 and up by $587 millon Y/Y from February 2024. Other big February 2025 outflows sufferers included:

Edgewood, $462 million (down by $540 million M/M, down by $38 million Y/Y);

Primecap, $371 million (up by $3 million M/M, up by $38 million Y/Y);

Champlain, $264 million (down by $42 million M/M, up by $87 million Y/Y); and

Bitwise, $239 million (a $307-million net flows drop M/M, and a $738-million net flows drop Y/Y).

As of February 28, 2025, Primecap leads the small firm outflows pack thanks to $5.057 billion in net TTM outflows. Other big outflows sufferers include: Ark, $3.926 billion; and Edgewood, $3.657 billion.

As a group, small fund firms brought in $428 million in net February 2025 inflows (up by $265 million M/M but down by $1.349 billion Y/Y), accounting for 0.6 percent of overall industry inflows. As of February 28, 2025, small firms had a combined $307 billion in AUM (down by $12 billion M/M, up by $19 billion Y/Y) across 1,440 funds (down by 50 M/M, down by 37 Y/Y). Small firms ended the month accounting fro 63.3 percent of the industry's total fund firms, 3.3 percent of the different funds, and 1 percent of AUM.

Across the whole industry, the 773 firms (down by 27 M/M and down by 5 Y/Y) tracked by the M* team brought in $77.635 billion in net February 2025 inflows. (That's up by $37.715 billion M/M and up by $14.505 billion Y/Y). As of February 28, 2025, the industry had $31.272 trillion in AUM (down by $163 billion M/M but up by $3.654 trillion Y/Y) across 43,367 funds (up by 88 M/M, up by 816 Y/Y).

For the 12 months ending February 28, 2025, the industry brought in $754.029 billion in net inflows.

*This M/M drop in the fund firm count is largely one of classification, as MFWire now labels all ETF families advised by Tidal Investments as one entry together. See Tidal's profile for a list of firms that the ETF-in-a-box shop works with. 

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