• AI-based asset management fintech start-up Akros Technologies becomes the first to list an AI-driven target income ETF with monthly distributions at the NYSE. 
• Akros’ income ETF aims for monthly distributions of an annualized target rate of 7% to seek income maximization. 
• Akros is on course to list another ETF in the 2nd half of 2022 targeting capital gain maximization. 
• Akros is led by the co-founder and CEO Kyle Moon who has a vast experience in AI and its application in finance. 
   

(May 10th 2022) AI-driven asset management fintech start-up Akros Technologies (“Akros”) announced on Friday the 6th of May that it has become the first company to list an AI-driven target income ETF with monthly distributions at the NYSE.

The listed income ETF is ‘Akros Monthly Payout ETF’ (ticker: MPAY) which aims for monthly distributions at an annualized target rate of 7%. The distributions of the ETF are comparable in essence to stock dividends such that MPAY can serve as a viable investment option for those who are looking for a new source of passive income and those looking to save for retirement. The ETF benchmarks ‘Akros Multi-Asset Index’ that the company developed last month without options and leverage.

Prior to the listing of MPAY, Akros has successfully launched two indexes with administrative services provided by Morningstar Indexes. The two indexes that Akros has developed are Akros Multi-Asset Index (ticker symbol: MPAY) and Akros Total Stock Market Index (ticker symbol: RTRN). The indexes have been implemented using Akros’ proprietary data infrastructure and distributed computing environment that process over 10TB point-in-time data dating from 1910 as well as AI models that have been trained at a level comparable to those used at global quantitative hedge funds. Further information on the two indexes can be accessed via Bloomberg Terminal. 

<Properties of the Akros Indexes>

‘Akros Multi-Asset Index’ tracks the performance of a dynamically allocated portfolio diversified across 19 different asset types to represent the target rate that corresponds to an annualized monthly payout of approximately 7%. In contrast to ‘S&P 500 Index’, one of the most followed U.S. equity indices, ‘Akros Multi-Asset Index’, designed to represent a portfolio which minimizes the impact of external factors affecting the market, recorded comparatively high stability by recording a small decline during the 2020 global stock market crash. Since the inception of the index to date, the portfolio representation of MPAY fulfilled an annualized target rate of 7% and simultaneously recorded an average annual return exceeding the inflation rate to represent stable cash flow with capital appreciation.

‘Akros Total Stock Market Index’ tracks the performance of a concentrated portfolio of 50 U.S. stocks with market capitalization greater than $1.0bn that targets expected annualized return in the high-teens. ‘Akros Total Stock Market Index’ represents a portfolio that seeks to maximize capital gain. The represented portfolio accordingly recorded a profit during the 2018 U.S.-China trade war when the volatility was high and outperformed the portfolio tracked by ‘S&P 500 Index’ every year since the inception of ‘Akros Total Stock Market Index’. Akros’ second ETF that benchmarks ‘Akros Total Stock Market Index’ is on schedule to be listed at the NYSE in the 2nd half of 2022.

The Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Kyle Moon said “Akros has verified the operation and tested the performance through the launch of the indexes and in the case of the ETF that benchmarks the Akros Multi-Asset Index, it will be the first AI-driven target income ETF to have listed at the NYSE to adopt the monthly payout policy at the given target rate”. Moon further asserted “Despite the increase in the base rate, savings for retirement remains unattractive due to a low deposit rate at around one percent. Whereas real estate investment provides an average annual rental yield of approximately two to four percent, liquidity is low and vacancy risk is high. Akros seeks to provide an effective investment solution for those looking for alternatives.” Consequently, Akros ultimately aims to transform the existing notion that ‘investing is difficult’ by focusing on the cores of investment which the company simplifies down to income maximization and capital maximization. The company seeks to meet consumer needs by listing the two ETFs that focus on these goals. Akros is expected to back these ETFs with its own capital investment and take internal compliance measures that only permit employees’ U.S. stock investments to Akros’ ETFs to remove any potential conflict of interests. 

Under the mission ‘engineering disruptive finance’, Akros develops data-driven financial technologies to develop globally scalable investment products. Founded in 2021, Akros is spearheaded by the experienced trio Kyle Moon, Jin Chung, and Justin Gim. As the previous Head of AI Research and CSO of Qraft Technologies, Moon has the experience of listing and managing 4 ETFs on NYSE using a deep learning-based system. While Chung has previously researched the application of Bayesian deep learning in autonomous driving at the Oxford Robotics Institute, Gim has over nine years of experience in the asset management industry.

Disclosure

The Fund seeks to make cash distributions once per month throughout a calendar year with the goal, but not the guarantee of an annualized target rate of 7.0%.

About Akros Technologies

Founded in January 2021, Akros Technologies (“Akros”) is an AI-driven fintech start-up with the mission “Engineering disruptive finance”. Stemming from Akros’ core strength in the asset management, Akros serves to provide “Better Yield & Better Return” to investors worldwide by developing and managing investment product with planned expansion into Asia, Europe and North America. 

The core competencies of Akros are its precise data infrastructure, hardware infrastructure and human resources. Akros’ data infrastructure processes over 100,000 point-in-time data points of 5 million types ranging from company fundamentals and price data, natural language data including those from the social media and news. Hardware infrastructure allocates over 140,000 computing cores for researchers to conduct experiments on parallel data pre-processing, deep learning model training and inference, and other meta research. 

Akros was founded by the experienced trio Kyle Moon, Jin Chung, and Justin Gim. The company currently has 6 employees. Please refer below for further details on the co-founders.

Kyle Moon

As the CEO of Akros Technologies, Kyle Moon has co-founded the company with the aim to address inherent inefficiencies apparent in the asset management industry with technology and to realize "Engineering disruptive finance" with the focus on the essence of asset management. 

As a previous Head of AI Research and CSO of Qraft Technologies, Moon is one of the pioneers to have listed and managed 4 ETFs on NYSE using deep learning based system, recording average annualized excess return of more than 10%p. He was at time the youngest speaker to have presented at the S&P quant conference along with other speakers from renowned institutions such as Goldman Sachs, AQR and Vanguard. Moon read business administration and electrical and information engineering at the Seoul National University.

Jin Chung

Relating to Moon’s vision to bring meaningful changes to the asset management industry, and appreciating the potential application of data-driven technology in the market, Jin Chung has co-founded the company with the goal of taking the company beyond Asia to a global recognition.

Chung previously researched the application of Bayesian deep learning in autonomous driving at the Oxford Robotics Institute. He also explored various investment strategies at Bloomberg and implemented object tracking model at Intel's OpenCV team. Having graduated from Eton College, Chung read information engineering at the University of Oxford.

Justin Gim

Justin Gim had observed the difficulty of satisfying the consumer needs and achieving consumer profit maximization in the traditional asset management industry. Together with Moon's contribution, Gim aspires to bring profound impact to the industry using his experience and domain knowledge.

From in-house research analyst to hedge fund PM, Justin Gim has over 9 years of experience in the asset management industry. Previously working at Astra Asset Management and Mirae Asset Global Investments, he has the experience of managing over $300 million in AUM and has a broad network of investors formerly undertaking the role of CMO at Qraft Technologies. Justin read Business Administration at Yonsei University.