In just six weeks, an ETF startup's latest fund crossed $100,000,000 in assets under management.

On November 12, 2014, New York City-based PureFunds debuted its PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF (ticker: HACK). Last week PureFunds CEO Andrew Chanin confirmed that the new ETF reached nine digits of AUM in its first six weeks on the market.

Chanin started his career on the floor of the now-gone American Stock Exchange as a clerk for a large ETF specialist group before working as a market maker in the international equity ETF space for NYSE's electronic Arca platform. Later he worked on an ETF market-making desk at a proprietary trading shop.

In 2010 he and a partner (since departed from PureFunds) went out on their own to launch PureFunds. By November 2012, they were ready to debut their first three ETFs, all global equity in the natural resource space. One of those ETFs, the PureFunds ISE Junior Silver ETF, remains today.

The PureFunds strategy, Chanin explains, is to come up with first-to-market ETF products. He compares his approach to that of Will Ferrell's character in the NASCAR movie Talladega Nights: "If you're not first, you're last."

"We keep looking for areas where we can be first-to-market," Chanin tells MFWire. "We are small and agile and creative and willing to try things."

PureFunds sponsors the ETFs, Factor Advisors is the advisor to the ETFs, and International Securities Exchange (ISE) licenses its indexes to PureFunds. Quasar Distributors handles distribution. Penserra Capital Management subadvises the new ETF. 

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