Invesco has brought a metaverse fund to market, jointly run by manager Tony Roberts (pictured) and deputy manager James McDermottroe, who sit on the firm’s UK-based Asia and emerging markets equities team.
The actively managed global equity fund offers exposure to opportunities that are geared towards growth of the metaverse, an online world that blends virtual with reality.
Facebook’s parent company choosing to adopt the moniker Meta is an indicator of the expected growth the augmented reality sector can deliver.
Invesco is by no means the only investment firm looking to take advantage of this perceived emerging opportunity. Among the 19 exchange traded funds registered in Spain earlier this month by HanETF, was one which it described as Europe’s first metaverse ETF.
In April, Baillie Gifford fund manager Kirsty Gibson spoke to Portfolio Adviser about one of the private holdings in its US Growth trust, saying it has “the potential to unlock an opportunity to become the social infrastructure of the metaverse”.
Virtual and augmented reality to give £1.4trn boost to the economy
The Invesco Metaverse Fund invests in large-, medium- and small-cap companies across the value chain, which encompasses sectors that help facilitate, create, or benefit from the growth of immersive virtual worlds.
The portfolio is geographically diversified, featuring companies from the United States, Asia, Japan and Europe, and its performance is measured against the MSCI AC World (net total return) benchmark.
Roberts said: “It has been estimated that, by 2030, virtual and augmented reality could deliver a £1.4trn boost to the global economy. While the metaverse’s applications to entertainment are increasingly well-understood, the interconnectivity that it enables will likely have a transformative impact across industries as diverse as healthcare, logistics, education and sport.
“We will seek to capitalise on these opportunities through a highly selective, valuation-conscious approach.”
Thematically, the fund will focus on seven areas:
- – Next generation operating and computer systems
- – Hardware and devices that provide access to the Metaverse
- – Networks for hyperconnectivity
- – Immersive platforms developed with artificial intelligence
- – Blockchain
- – The interchange tools necessary to bring about interoperability
- – Services and assets that will facilitate the digitisation of the real economy
