Small firms swung back slightly into positive flows territory last month, according to the latest data from the folks at a publicly traded investment research firm.

This article draws from Morningstar Direct data on January 2025 mutual fund and ETF flows, excluding money market funds and funds of funds. (Other asset management products, like CITs and SMAs, are also not included.) More specifically, this article focuses on the 516 firms (down by two month-over-month from December 2024 but up by 21 year-over-year from January 2024) with fewer than ten long-term mutual funds or ETFs each.

21Shares took the lead last month, thanks to an estimated $499 million in net January 2025 inflows, a $708-million net flows jump M/M from December 2024 but down by $141 million Y/Y from January 2024. Other big January 2025 inflows winners included: Alpha Architect, $470 million (up by $393 million M/M, up by $198 million Y/Y); Neos, $349 million (down by $49 million M/M, up by $219 million Y/Y); Eldridge, $245 million (up by $118 million M/M); and Aptus, $155 million (up by $59 million M/M, up by $131 million Y/Y).

Last month, there were four apparent mutual fund and ETF industry newcomers: Abs-Invest, AlphaQuest, Quantum Advisors, and Sarmaya Partners.

For the trailing twelve months ending January 31, 2025, Alpha Architect led the small firm inflows pack, thanks to an estimated $4.108 billion in net inflows. Other big TTM inflows winners included: Volatility Shares, $3.066 billion; and Neos, $2.711 billion.

On the flip side, Edgewood took the outflows lead last month, thanks to an estimated $1.002 billion in net January 2025 outflows, up by $201 million M/M from December 2024 and up by $878 million Y/Y from January 2024. Other big January 2025 outflows sufferers included: SoFi, $551 million (a $561-million net flows drop M/M, and a $574-million net flows drop Y/Y); Akre, $468 million (up by $125 million M/M, up by $133 million Y/Y); Primecap, $368 million (down by $636 million M/M, up by $18 million Y/Y); and Champlain, $306 million (up by $92 million M/M, up by $302 million Y/Y).

As of January 31, 2025, Primecap leads the small firm outflows pack thanks to $5.019 billion in net TTM outflows. Other big outflows sufferers included: Ark, $4.401 billion; and Edgewood, $3.695 billion.

As a group, small fund firms brought in $163 million in net January 2025 outflows, a $2.816-billion net flows improvement M/M but down by $4.371 billion Y/Y. As of January 31, 2025, small firms had a combined $319 billion in AUM (up by $9 billion M/M, up by $45 billion Y/Y) across 1,490 funds (down by 5 M/M, up by 3 Y/Y). Small firms ended the month accounting for 64.5 percent of the industry's total fund firms, 3.4 percent of funds, and 1 percent of AUM.

As of January 31, 2025, small firms brought in $5.217 billion in net TTM inflows. They accounted for 0.7 percent of overall industry inflows over those 12 months.

Across the whole industry, the 800 firms (down by six M/M but up by 27 Y/Y) brought in $39.92 billion in net January 2025 inflows. (That's down by $56.998 billion M/M but up by $3.979 billion Y/Y.) As of January 31, 2025, the industry had $31.435 trillion in AUM (up by $888 billion M/M and up by $4.812 trillion Y/Y) across 43,279 funds (down by 63 M/M but up by 833 Y/Y).

For the 12 months ending January 31, 2025, the industry brought in $732.311 billion in net inflows. 

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