iA Financial Group is launching a new segregated fund dedicated to investing in innovation.

The fund, called the Thematic Innovation Fund, is managed by Jean-Pierre Chevalier and is a U.S. equity fund that offers a different way to invest by focusing on innovation— in companies from all sectors that are benefitting from technological advances or that are prospering in perpetually changing environments.

“The investment strategy focuses not strictly on investing in technology itself, but instead on targeting companies that are benefitting from changes caused by technological innovations and avoiding those that will be negatively impacted,” says Chevalier.

Four main investment themes

There are four main investment themes: intelligent connectivity, future energy, industrial digitisation and next generation genomics, as well as 40 related sub-themes. The 100 to 120 securities that make up the fund were strategically chosen from over 700 companies that benefit from the influence of the four investment themes chosen.

“This new fund will meet our advisors' need to differentiate themselves in a competitive market by introducing new solutions for innovative investments,” adds Chevalier.

The fund has performed better than its reference index (S&P 500) with similar risk. It also allows unit holders to benefit from all the advantages of segregated funds with a competitive management expense ratio, starting at 2.20%.