ETF launches for biometrics firms and others building cashless payment infrastructure

An Irish investment tracking fund focused on environmental and food companies has announced a third focus: cashless payments.

Rize ETF, with $500 million in assets under management, has created an exchange traded fund, or ETF, tracking growth in the payments sector. That includes companies involved with face biometrics, digital currencies and digital wallets.

Rize’s Digital Payments Economy fund joins its Environmental Impact 100 and Sustainable Future of Food vehicles.

Having launched Rize in January 2020, fund managers see an opportunity in companies that are creating what they call the “structural transition” from traditional finance transactions to cashlessness.

EFTs typically track the movement of an industry and other asset groupings. In this case, Rize managers will watch biometric and other niches supporting the expected transition.

Chinese startups have been one target of investment, Rize’s prospectus states.

The prospectus also notes, without explanation, that its shares cannot and will not be registered for sale in the United States.

The managers clearly have read articles, like a recent one by the United Kingdom-based publication Investmentweek, that paint a bright future for cashless enterprises.

The story quotes Deutsche Bank research predicting that the number of people carrying digital wallets will increase from 2.3 billion in 2020 to 4 billion globally by 2024. Acuity’s Maxine Most has predicted biometrics investment this year will reach $3 billion.

There are other strategies for investing in payment-related biometrics, too. Here are three.

Article Topics

biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  cryptocurrency  |  digital ID  |  digital wallets  |  facial recognition  |  investment