FinTech News

SoFi Introduces Gig Economy ETF

Less than a month after debuting two of their own exchange-traded funds, FinTech firm SoFi is back at it. This week the company introduced another ETF, this time focusing on the growing gig economy. Trading under the ticker symbol $GIGE, the ETF currently includes companies directly and indirectly involved in the gig economy such as GrubHub, Groupon, Square, PayPal, Etsy, Ebay, and Lyft.

Unlike their other ETFs — the SoFi 500 and Next 500 — that reflect the top 500 and next top 500 largest companies respectively, the SoFi Gig Economy ETF will be actively managed. As a result the ETF will evolve to keep up with trends, including accounting for upcoming initial public offerings. In fact the company says the fund is designed to be able to add companies 31 days after IPO, as opposed to the 60 to 90 days passive funds might take to make additions.

In a statement about the new product, SoFi wrote, “The SoFi Gig Economy ETF provides exposure to companies involved in this revolutionary shift toward a gig economy. GIGE is the first ETF to concentrate on providing diversified access to companies in the gig economy.” The company went on to note that the ETF offer global diversity, saying, “The Gig Economy is global, which is why approximately 40 to 50% of GIGE’s holdings consist of companies outside the United States. Investing in companies from different regions can help offset weakness in individual local markets.”

Given the actively managed nature of the ETF, it’s no surprise that GIGE’s expense ratio is on the higher end at 0.59%. By contrast, SoFi is currently waiving fees on SFY and SFYX to bring total fund expenses to zero through at least June. At press time, GIGE was trading at $19.78 per share.

Incidentally, GIGE isn’t the only new ETF SoFi debuted this week. The SoFi 50 ($SFYF) includes 50 of the 1,000 largest publicly-traded U.S. companies. These 50 companies are chosen by those with the highest growth score, which is based on top-line revenue growth, net income growth, and forward-looking consensus estimates of net income growth. SFYF is currently trading at $19.72 per share and has an expense ratio of 0.29%.

If it weren’t already clear, SoFi continues to show that they’re serious about their diversification efforts. Between their SoFi Money bank accounts, active and automated investment options, and these latest ETFs, the company is introducing features at a fast and furious rate few others can keep up with. It’s been said before but, from what we’ve seen just this year alone, SoFi is one FinTech worth keeping an eye on.