Evolve Funds Group

Raj Lala, President and CEO, and Chairman Michael Simonetta lead the firm. Evolve is registered as both investment fund manager and portfolio manager, keeping strategy and execution in-house rather than delegating to external CIOs. Sub-advisory relationships exist for certain mandates — Slate Securities manages the firm's real estate exposure — but the core covered-call and index replication programs are run directly by Evolve.

Evolve builds its own indexes or licenses them from providers. For example, the FANGMA Index ETF tracks a custom basket of six large-cap technology names, while the crypto ETFs use spot physical Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, and XRP. The firm does not operate a venture-investing arm that feeds its thematic pipeline; instead, it pieces together public-market exposure using transparent, rules-based or physically backed structures.

Evolve Funds Group is a registered asset manager and ETF issuer, not a family office. It manages both retail and institutional capital through publicly listed exchange-traded funds. Urbana Corporation, a private equity investor, holds an ownership stake, but Evolve's business model is built on gathering third-party assets and earning management fees on its fund lineup.

Evolve focuses on publicly traded ETFs that hold equities, fixed-income instruments, and physical crypto. It does not operate a private-markets division making fund commitments or direct private-company investments. The firm's closest private-asset exposure comes through its real estate ETF run by sub-advisor Slate Securities, but that vehicle itself invests in public real estate securities rather than direct property.

Evolve does not publish a formal exclusion or restricted-sector list. Its product lineup is additive — it adds thematic, yield-enhanced, and crypto exposures on top of core equity and fixed-income funds — rather than screening out industries. That said, the lack of dedicated ESG-focused ETFs suggests the firm has not prioritized sustainability mandates as a standalone offering.

Urbana Corporation is disclosed as a private equity investor in Evolve Funds Group Inc., owning a stake in the management company. Slate Asset Management is listed as the parent of Slate Securities L.P., which acts as sub-advisor for Evolve's real estate ETF (BILT), providing the portfolio management for that specific mandate.

Evolve operates a charitable mandate — 'Evolve Funds Group Charitable Mandate' — which runs alongside rather than fully separately from the commercial business. The firm frames it as part of its volunteer initiatives, but it does not appear to be a legally distinct foundation with independent trustees. Lala and Simonetta's personal philanthropic activities are not publicly segmented.