Timeline of Ark Invest

This is a timeline of Ark Invest, an American investment management firm based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Founded by Cathie Wood, the firm is known for its focus on investing in disruptive and innovative technologies, including fields such as artificial intelligence, DNA sequencing, robotics, electric vehicles, and blockchain technology.

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Year	Month and date	Event type	Details
2014	Founding	Cathie registered ARK Investment Management LLC as an investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. ARK Investment Management LLC, commonly known as ARK Invest, is founded by Cathie Wood in St. Petersburg, Florida. The company is named after the Ark of the Covenant and also stands for Active Research Knowledge. Wood leaves AllianceBernstein, where she was the chief investment officer of global thematic strategies, due to her innovative ideas being deemed too risky.
2014 (October 31)	Launch	ARK Invest introduces the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), an actively managed fund focused on companies leading disruptive innovation in areas such as intelligent devices, autonomous mobility, precision therapies, neural networks, cloud computing, digital wallets, genomic technologies, and digital assets. The fund maintains a concentrated portfolio across sectors like electric vehicles, fintech, streaming, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence. Highlighted holdings include Tesla, Coinbase, Roku, Roblox, Shopify, CRISPR Therapeutics, Robinhood, Palantir, and AMD. Combining deep research with active management, ARKK seeks high-growth platforms often overlooked by benchmarks. It emphasizes North America while retaining global scope, embodying Cathie Wood’s vision of capturing transformative technologies.
2016	Fund Launch	ARK introduces the 3D Printing ETF.
2017 (May 12)	Fund Launch	ARK Israel Innovative Technology ETF (IZRL) is launched. It is designed to track the ARK Israeli Innovation Index. The fund targets Israeli companies driving disruptive innovation in genomics, healthcare, biotechnology, industrials, manufacturing, and information technology. With net assets of $121.2 million as of August 31, 2025, IZRL holds 76 companies, a weighted average market cap of $3 billion, and an expense ratio of 0.49%. Top holdings include Aryt Industries, Gilat Satellite Networks, Pagaya, Sapiens, and Tower Semiconductor.
2017	Stake Acquisition	Nikko Asset Management acquires a 15% stake in ARK Invest, following the success of a Global Fintech Equity Fund. Nikko gains exclusive rights to offer ARK products in Japan and the broader Asia-Pacific region.
2019	Fund Launch	The Fintech Innovation ETF is introduced.
2020 (November)	Acquisition Attempt	Resolute Investment Managers announce its intention to acquire a majority stake in ARK Invest.
2020 (December)	Repurchase	Cathie Wood repurchases the option to acquire a majority stake from Resolute Investment Managers, retaining control of the company. Resolute Investment remained a minority shareholder.
2020 (December)	Milestone	The Innovation ETF becomes the largest actively managed ETF with $17 billion in assets under management and achieved a 170% return for the year.
2021 (January 11)	Milestone	ARK Invest becomes one of the top 10 issuers of exchange-traded funds.
2021 (June)	Filing	ARK files to create a bitcoin ETF under the ticker ARKB, pending SEC approval.
2021 (October)	Relocation	ARK Invest moves its office from New York City to St. Petersburg, Florida.
2021 (November)	Fund Launch	The Short Innovation ETF is launched, providing inverse exposure to the ARK Innovation ETF.
2022 (July 31)	Fund Closure	ARK Invest announces the closure of the Transparency ETF (CTRU) due to the discontinuation of the Transparency Index by Transparency Global.
2022 (November 22)	Statement	Cathie Wood states a $1 million bitcoin price target by 2030 during an interview on Bloomberg TV.
2023 (April 25)	Re-filing	ARK re-files to launch the spot bitcoin ETF in the US.
2023 (September 19)		ARK Invest announces the acquisition of Rize ETF Limited, Europe’s first specialist thematic ETF issuer. The move marks a key step in ARK’s global expansion, enabling the launch of its UCITS-compliant innovation ETFs across Europe, the UK, and other markets. Rize ETF’s expertise in thematic and sustainable investing merges with ARK’s actively managed disruptive innovation strategy. The brand would transition into ARK Invest Europe, serving as the hub for growth while maintaining Rize’s products. At the time, Rize ETF manages $452M; and ARK, $25B globally.
2024 (January 10)	Approval	The SEC approves ARK's spot bitcoin ETF, which begins trading the following day.
2024 (August)	Assets Update	ARK's assets under management drop to $6.71 billion, down from $50 billion at the peak in February 2021.
2025 (June 5)		In an interview on The Diary Of A CEO by British entrepreneur Steven Bartlett, Cathie Wood describes how AI-driven disruption will reshape markets within five years. She highlights five innovation platforms: AI/robotics, energy storage, blockchain/digital assets, multi-omics, and autonomous mobility. Tesla is her top pick, with robo-taxis and humanoid robots driving exponential growth. She predicts Bitcoin could reach $1.5 million by 2030, calling it a new asset class. Other recommended names include Coinbase, Palantir, CRISPR Therapeutics, Archer, Roku, Shopify, Roblox, Robinhood, and TSMC. Her strategy emphasizes dollar-cost averaging via ETFs and warns that incumbents like Apple risk disruption.

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The initial version of the timeline was written by Sebastian.

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• Add Cathie Woods interviews with Elon Musk, Peter Diamandis, etc