Near San Francisco, an ESG-focused, impacting investing roboadvisor is entering the ETF business.

Today, Doug Heske, CEO of Newday Funds, Inc. (dba Newday Impact), and Philippe Cousteau, co-founder of EarthEcho International (and grandson of the famous marine conservationist), unveiled the launch of the Newday Ocean Health ETF (AHOY on the NYSE Arca). The active, quantitative equity fund's inception date was yesterday. (The launch comes three years after Heske told MFWire that he was "absolutely looking" to launch '40 Act products.)

The fund comes with an expense ratio of 75 basis points. The plan is for five percent of Newday's net revenue from the fund to be dnated to EarthEcho, a non-profit dedicated to building "a global youth movement to protect and restore our ocean planet." Indeed, the idea behind the fund is to invest in companies that are helping the health of the world's oceans.

This is Newday's first foray into the ETF space, and it serves as subadvisor of the new fund, while Toroso Investments, LLC is the investment advisor. The fund will have four PMs: Shireen Eddleblute, director of ESG research, co-portfolio manager, and chief diversity officer at Newday; Charles Ragauss, portfolio manager at Toroso; Gordon Telfer, chief investment officer and portfolio manager at Newday; and Michael Venuto, CIO at Toroso.

"Our Ocean Health ETF portfolio is 100% focused on companies with effective, legitimate green agendas, based on the knowledge and relationships we've built in our five years of impact investing," Heske states.

"Ocean health is critical to the survival of the planet for reasons ranging from its role in absorbing CO2 and supplying oxygen to providing food for billions of people around the world, creating millions of jobs, and even supplying ingredients for life-saving medications," Philippe Cousteau adds.

The new fund's other service providers include: Cohen & Company, Ltd. as independent accounting firm; Foreside Fund Services, LLC as distributor; Godfrey & Kahn, S.C. as counsel; Tidal ETF Services LLC (a Toroso affiliate) as administrator; U.S. Bancorp Fund Services, LLC (dba U.S. Bank Global Fund Services) as fund accountant, sub-administrator, and transfer agent; and U.S. Bank National Association as custodian. 

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