Capital management company First Private is broadening its product range to include active ETFs as well as ETF share classes for UCITS funds, partnering with digital fund infrastructure platform NaroIQ to do so.

• With NaroIQ’s digital infrastructure, First Private gains efficient access to the rapidly growing market for active ETFs.

• First Private continues to rely on its own capital management company (ManCo) licence and retains its established value chain with Universal Investment (fund administrator) and depositaries.

Frankfurt am Main, 20 May 2026 – First Private Investment Management is entering into a strategic technology partnership with infrastructure fintech NaroIQ to launch and manage active ETFs alongside its mutual funds and mandates. Going forward, ETF share classes for mutual funds will also be offered, adding a future-essential component to the company’s existing product range. The first ETF launch is planned for the second half of 2026. Drawing on NaroIQ's digital infrastructure, First Private gains access to the ETF market using its own German ManCo licence, without having to rely on cost-intensive external structures. This enables First Private to efficiently maintain its established value chain with Universal Investment as fund administrator and First Private’s own depositaries. 

A strategic step into a growth market

With its entry into active ETFs, First Private is responding to the rising structural demand for exchange-traded investment solutions. In the retail segment in particular, investment decisions are increasingly shifting onto digital platforms and neobrokers, while institutional investors value the high liquidity and continuous price formation of ETFs during volatile market phases. According to ETFGI, the European ETF market recorded record inflows of more than €300 billion in 2025. Active ETFs are developing particularly dynamically, with assets under management rising to €78.4 billion according to Morningstar, an increase of around 50 percent year on year.

By introducing its own active ETFs, First Private secures direct access to this dynamic growth segment. In future, this ETF infrastructure is also intended to be offered to other fund initiators via the First Private Investment Partners platform.

“Our partnership with NaroIQ fits into our strategic expansion of ManCo services for external fund partners. Together with our multi-boutique network, FP Investment Partners, we can map complex and innovative investment strategies, ranging from derivative solutions to active funds. Going forward, these will also be available in an ETF wrapper, whether as a standalone solution or as a share class,” says Alexander Preininger, CEO of First Private Investment Management.

“With First Private, one of Germany's most sophisticated ManCos is showing that active management and the ETF wrapper are not a contradiction. Our infrastructure simplifies entry into the ETF market without operational processes having to be set up from scratch. Existing value chains, partnerships and team structures remain in place,” explains Chris Puellen, Co-founder and CEO of NaroIQ.

NaroIQ establishes a further path to ETF issuance

For ManCos like First Private looking to issue active ETFs, two options have been available to date. The first is building proprietary infrastructure, which involves considerable expenditure in terms of cost, personnel and time. The second option, outsourcing to white-label platforms, results in significant fixed costs, a loss of control over the company's own value chain and the operational limitation of being unable to offer ETF share classes.

NaroIQ provides a third option. As a BaFin-regulated infrastructure provider, the fintech delivers the technological building blocks that a ManCo needs for ETF issuance alongside its existing fund components, ranging from interfaces with market makers to the integration with fund administrators and depositaries, through to further specific processes. The ManCo retains its own licence, its partners and full control. This reduces costs as well as time-to-market.