MutualFundWire.com: Pot Builds a Fund-of-Alts-Fund-Firms

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Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Pot Builds a Fund-of-Alts-Fund-Firms

The folks at a two-year-old startup in the Big Apple are launching another active ETF, and a familiar, nearby ally is helping out again.

Last week, Kaimon Chung, head of alternatives and investment partner at Tema ETFs, unveiled the launch of the Tema Alternative Asset Managers ETF (AAUM on the Cboe BZX). The new ETF (which had previously been expected to be called the Tema Alternative Investment Managers ETF) is powered by New York City-based Tema ETFs LLC as investment advior, and by Westport, Connecticut-based Neos Investment Management LLC as subadvisor. (Neos already subadvises other Tema ETFs, too.)

AAUM's inception date was last Wednesday (October 1). The new ETF comes with an expense ratio of 75 basis points. (That bakes in a 24bps fee waiver promised through March 31, 2026.)

The Tema team lays claim to AAUM being the United States' first active ETF focused on publicly traded alts managers "across the private markets' universe, including key franchises in private equity, private credit, private infrastructure, venture capital and private real estate." AAUM's six-person PM team includes:

Troy Cates, co-founder and managing partner of Neos;

Ryan Houlton, head of trading at Neos;

Garrett Paolella, co-founder and managing partner at Neos;

Maurits Pot, founder and CEO of Tema;

Yuri Khodjamirian, chief investment officer of Tema; and

Chung himself.

Chung describes AAUM as "designed to provide investors with quality exposure to a growing universe of listed privates managers."

"These privates' managers retain significant dry powder deployed opportunistically across asset classes," Chung states. "Active management expertise is required to risk manage and identify the winning private markets franchises, as the outcomes between listed managers have historically diverged significantly."

AAUM is an actively managed, non-diversified series of Tema ETF Trust. The new ETF's other service providers include:

Cohen & Company as independent accounting firm;

ACA's Foreside Fund Services, LLC as distributor;

Thompson Hine LLP as counsel;

U.S. Bancorp Fund Services, LLC (dba U.S> Bank Global Fund Services) as transfer agent; and

U.S. Bank, N.A. as custodian.