Precidian Investments

What Precidian Investments does

Precidian Investments is a privately held financial product development firm founded in 2005 (originally as M7 Ventures) and headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania. The company designs proprietary exchange-traded fund (ETF) structures and associated trading and pricing technologies, which it then licenses to asset managers and ETF providers under B2B technology-licensing and sponsorship arrangements. Founded by principals with direct involvement in originating the U.S. ETF industry — including the team behind SPDR Gold Shares and the establishment of ETF markets on AMEX and NYSE — Precidian operates as an intellectual property and product-architecture business rather than an asset gatherer.

The company's core technology portfolio centers on four proprietary structures. ActiveShares is a semi-transparent active ETF structure (approved May 2019) that allows active managers to deliver ETF vehicles without daily holdings disclosure, using authorized participant representatives (APRs), a Verified Intraday Indicative Value (VIIV) calculated every second by IHS Markit, and trusted agents to maintain portfolio confidentiality. ADRhedged embeds a currency hedge (counterparty: CIBC) into individual ADR-based ETFs to provide single-name international exposure with mitigated FX risk. CurrencyShares is a family of physically-backed currency ETFs whose trusts hold actual foreign currency with JPMorgan Bank, eliminating derivative slippage. Managed Distribution ETFs use patented E&P management technology to enable tax-deferred periodic distributions for retirement vehicles. Licensees and partners include DoubleLine, First Manhattan, GAMCO/Gabelli, Fred Alger, American Century, and Invesco, with operational infrastructure provided by State Street, BNY Mellon, IHS Markit, and Citadel Securities, and listings on Cboe and NYSE Arca.

Precidian's commercial model is B2B licensing and sponsorship: the firm licenses its patent-pending and patented processes for an ongoing fee, and alternatively acts as product sponsor handling regulatory filings and oversight for asset managers. Revenue streams therefore take the form of licensing royalties and managed-service fees, with pricing negotiated per partner and not publicly disclosed. The customer base consists of asset managers and ETF providers seeking novel structures, with CurrencyShares products running through Invesco and ADRhedged/ActiveShares distributed via multiple tier-one asset managers; ultimate end-investors access exposures through licensed licensee ETFs rather than directly from Precidian.

Name

Precidian Investments

Legal name

Precidian Investments

Website

https://precidian.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2005

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Precidian Investments is a private Newtown, Pennsylvania-based firm that designs and licenses proprietary ETF structures — including ActiveShares semi-transparent active ETFs, physically-backed CurrencyShares, currency-hedged ADRhedged ETFs, and Managed Distribution ETFs — to asset managers and ETF providers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

ETF Structure Technology and Licensing

NAICS

Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles (525), Securities and Commodity Contracts Intermediation and Brokerage (5231), Investment Banking and Securities Intermediation (523150)

SIC

Patent Owners & Lessors (6794), Security Brokers, Dealers & Flotation Companies (6211)

akta.pro primary industry

Currency & FX-Hedged ETFs (FSAAAFAL)

Keywords

• ETF structure licensing
• Active ETF development
• Currency-hedged ETFs
• Physically-backed currency trusts
• Mutual fund to ETF conversion

Headquarters

HQ city

Newtown

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Technology Licensing: Precidian licenses its patent-pending processes and technologies to ETF providers and asset managers for an ongoing fee. Licensees include DoubleLine, First Manhattan, GAMCO/Gabelli, Alger, and American Century.
2. ETF Sponsorship Services: Acts as sponsor for products, handling all regulatory filings and oversight for asset managers who prefer not to manage compliance internally.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Precidian Investments designs and develops proprietary, patent-protected exchange-traded fund (ETF) structures and the trading and pricing technologies behind them. It licenses these structures (ActiveShares, ADRhedged, CurrencyShares, Managed Distribution ETFs) to ETF providers and asset managers for an ongoing fee, and also acts as product sponsor handling regulatory filings and oversight.

Product overview

Precidian Investments is an industry leader in creating innovative financial products, specializing in ETF and mutual fund development along with associated trading and pricing technologies. The company offers a portfolio of proprietary, patent-protected ETF structures: ActiveShares℠ (semi-transparent active ETF structure for confidential portfolio management), CurrencyShares® (physically-backed currency ETFs), ADRhedged™ (currency-hedged international equity exposure), and Managed Distribution ETFs (tax-deferred retirement-focused distributions). The company also created SPDR Gold Shares and is developing tokenization technology. Precidian licenses its structures to asset managers including DoubleLine, First Manhattan, Alger, and GAMCO, and partners with exchanges (Cboe, NYSE Arca), custodians (BNY Mellon, State Street), and service providers (CIBC for currency hedging) to deliver its innovative products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• ActiveShares: Proprietary actively managed ETF structure that allows delivery of active investment strategies without daily disclosure of holdings.
• CurrencyShares
• ADRhedged
• Managed Distribution ETFs

Products and services

• ActiveShares Proprietary semi-transparent actively managed ETF structure that allows asset managers to deliver active investment strategies via ETF vehicles without disclosing holdings on a daily basis. Uses Authorized Participant Representatives (APRs) to execute creations and redemptions and publishes a Verified Intraday Indicative Value (VIIV) every second. Licensed to asset managers including DoubleLine, First Manhattan, GAMCO/Gabelli, Alger, and American Century.
• CurrencyShares First physically-backed currency ETFs that hold actual currency with JPMorgan Bank, avoiding slippage from derivative-backed currency products. Includes Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound Sterling, Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, and Swiss Franc trusts managed by Invesco.
• ADRhedged Innovative ETF structure combining American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) with an embedded currency hedge to provide exposure to individual international companies without currency risk. Each ADRhedged ETF pairs an ADR with a currency contract (provided by CIBC as counterparty) designed to mitigate foreign exchange risk between the local currency and U.S. dollar. Listed on Cboe and NYSE Arca.
• Managed Distribution ETFs

Quantifiable outcome

• Currency-hedged index outperformed unhedged version by approximately 2.42% annualized from January 2015 to February 2025, cumulative outperformance of nearly 45%

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration9 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• NYSE ArcacoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 23 April 2025ADRhedged ETFs moved to NYSE Arca effective April 23, 2025. NYSE Arca is the top U.S. exchange for ETFs listing nearly 80% of all US ETF assets.
• Cboe Global MarketscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 7 October 2024Exclusive listing exchange for ADRhedged securities in the U.S. Cboe is the second largest ETF listing venue with over 825 ETF listings. ADRhedged ETFs were initially listed on Cboe before moving to NYSE Arca.
• Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC)coreTechnology or Integration · 7 October 2024Provides currency hedge mechanism for ADRhedged ETFs. CIBC pioneered CDRs in Canada in 2021 with over $50 billion CAD in trading volume. Serves as counterparty providing the currency overlay.
• BNY MelloncoreTechnology or Integration · 7 October 2024Serves as custodian for ADRhedged ETF products, providing safekeeping and administrative services.
• GAMCO Investors / Gabelli FundscoreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing Partner · 10 May 2022Launched Gabelli Financial Services Opportunities ETF (GABF) using ActiveShares. GAMCO has $33.4 billion in AUM.
• State Street CorporationcoreTechnology or Integration · 5 April 2022Provides basket creation, dissemination, settlement, custody, fund accounting, order-taking, financial reporting and transfer agency services for ActiveShares ETFs.
• DoubleLine CapitalcoreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing Partner · 7 October 2021Licensed ActiveShares structure to launch DoubleLine Shiller CAPE U.S. Equities ETF (DCPE) and DoubleLine Opportunistic Bond ETF (DBND). $137 billion in AUM as of 2021.
• First Manhattan Co.coreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing Partner · 27 September 2021Licensed ActiveShares to launch FMC Excelsior Focus Equity ETF (FMCX). $20 billion in fee-paying AUM.
• Fred Alger ManagementcoreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing Partner · 19 August 2020Licensed ActiveShares to launch Alger 25 ETF and Alger Mid Cap 40 ETF. Alger manages $22 billion in US large cap growth equity strategies.
• American Century InvestmentscoreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing Partner · 2 April 2020First to launch ActiveShares-based ETFs with American Century Focused Dynamic Growth ETF (FDG) and American Century Focused Large Cap Value ETF (FLV).
• InvescocoreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing Partner · 1 January 2006Licensed CurrencyShares brand to Invesco for physically-backed currency ETFs including Euro Trust (FXE), Japanese Yen Trust (FXY), and others.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Blue Tractor Group: Developed a competing non-transparent / semi-transparent active ETF structure that was SEC-approved alongside Precidian's ActiveShares. Closest direct competitor in the proprietary active-ETF-structure IP niche.
• Exchange Traded Concepts: White-label ETF platform and sponsor that helps asset managers launch ETFs, providing structural IP, regulatory filings, and operational setup analogous to Precidian's ActiveShares and sponsorship services.
• Invesco: Licenses the CurrencyShares brand from Precidian and operates the six Invesco Currency Trusts; also a major active-ETF issuer that competes broadly with Precidian-licensed products.
• WisdomTree: Innovative ETF issuer with proprietary currency-hedged, thematic, and active ETF structures; comparable in combining proprietary product IP with B2B distribution to advisors.

Broad incumbents

• ProShares: Large specialized ETF issuer with proprietary product structures (leveraged, thematic, active). Comparable in being a structural-IP-driven ETF business targeting advisors, though in adjacent categories.
• T. Rowe Price: Large active asset manager that has launched proprietary active ETFs — a potential customer for ActiveShares licensing and a competitor if it builds its own non-transparent structure.
• Fidelity Investments: Large active manager with growing active-ETF franchise; competing for the same advisor/active-manager demand that ActiveShares targets.
• BlackRock (iShares): Dominant global ETF issuer; sets structural and regulatory precedents that affect the addressable market for Precidian's proprietary structures.

Emerging players

• Alpha Architect: Quantitative and active ETF issuer with proprietary factor-based product structures; comparable in being a smaller, IP-driven ETF sponsor serving advisor demand.
• KraneShares: Thematic ETF issuer with proprietary product structures (including international/currency themes); overlaps with Precidian's currency-hedged and ADR-focused offerings.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/precidian-investments

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Precidian Investments