Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest launched a new venture capital fund targeting individual investors for investments of only $500. The Ark Venture Fund is actively managed and invests in 70% private companies and 30% public companies focused on technologically enabled innovation, as well as select venture capital funds, Ark Invest announced Tuesday. The fund is available to individual investors initially through investing app Titan, a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz. “We are doubling down on innovation,” Wood said in an interview Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “Ark is moving from social media and social marketing into social distribution, direct to consumer. Pretty exciting. We are offering investors something they’ve not been able to access before.”
The Ark Venture Fund charges a flat management fee of 2.75% and does not charge any carried interest or load fees. Ark said that the fund’s total expense ratio is estimated to be 4.22%. Ark’s flagship Innovation Fund (ARKK) has been underwater all year as Wood’s disruptive darlings have been some of the biggest victims of rising interest rates. ARKK is down 60% this year and off 70% from its 52-week high in November.