You have the license. You have the track record. What you’re missing is a way to distribute your strategy publicly – at a cost that actually makes sense below €50M in AuM.
If you want to set up your own UCITS fund the costs are upwards of €100,000 in setup and it takes 12-18 months before your first investor subscribes. Every jurisdiction you want to reach means a separate distribution agreement, a local KIID, and often a local tax representative. Each intermediary in the chain – custodian, transfer agent, clearing house, fund platform, distributor – takes a cut. Below €50M, the economics simply don’t work.
Managing separate accounts doesn’t solve it either. No ISIN. No exchange listing. No daily liquidity. Every new client is a manually managed relationship you can’t scale.
That’s the gap iMaps was built to close.
What iMaps Actually Does?
iMaps operates a two-tier structure. For each ETI, iMaps sets up a dedicated Segregated Portfolio within a Segregated Portfolio Company (SPC) in Cayman Islands wholly owned by iMaps ETI AG.
Here’s how it works in practice:
- The SPC opens a dedicated brokerage account for each Segregated Portfolio
- You receive Power of Attorney over it via a Delegated Investment Management Agreement
- You execute trades directly – no limits on rebalancing frequency, including intraday
- iMaps ETI AG issues ETI units linked 1:1 to that portfolio’s value and lists them on Stuttgart Stock Exchange (EUWAX) – Europe’s largest exchange segment for structured investment products (home to approximately 1.9 million instruments).
Your investors buy in through their existing bank or broker such as Interactive Brokers, which gives access to 170+ markets in 29 currencies and serves clients in 200+ countries.
The issuer’s own credit risk is hedged through collateralisation: the Segregated Portfolio’s assets are pledged to Collateral Services PTC – a 100% subsidiary of Intertrust Group for the sole benefit of ETI investors.
What You Get from Day One?
Because iMaps ETIs are issued under an FMA-approved Base Prospectus, your ETI launches with:
- Retail public offering rights across the whole EEA (you choose 5 countries to start with at the beginning)
- Public offering rights to professional and qualified investors across the EU, UK, Norway, and Iceland
- Private placement eligibility in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, and most Asian jurisdictions
- Daily trading on Stuttgart Stock Exchange (EUWAX) from 9am to 5:30pm CET, with EUWAX AG as Quality Liquidity Provider.
- First trading day approximately 30 business days from accepted due diligence
You don’t file a single prospectus. All of this is “inherited” from iMaps’ existing approved programme.
What Are the Costs?
Ongoing operations are covered by a €1,000/month fee charged to the Segregated Portfolio. This includes:
- Monthly NAV calculations and reporting
- Annual audit by BDO Liechtenstein AG
- Listing fees, ISIN maintenance, and FMA regulatory fees
- Collateralisation maintenance with Intertrust Group
On top of that, you keep up to 3% p.a. management fee and up to 30% performance fee. iMaps charges 0.20% p.a. on AuM. Total fees across all parties are capped at 4.5% p.a. plus performance for retail-approved products.
To get started, a €6,000 deposit is required before issuance. It works as a safety buffer – not a fee. If your ETI reaches average AuM of €300,000 or more over the first six months, the full €6,000 is refunded.
Is It The Right Fit for You?
iMaps is built for investment / asset managers who:
- Are targeting €500,000 to €50M in AuM – the range where a standalone fund is economically unworkable
- Manage equities, bonds, ETFs, futures, options, alternatives, or digital assets
- Want investors to access their strategy through existing banks and brokers
- Are licensed (or not – see our blogpost about setting up a fund without a license) but don’t yet have a publicly listed, exchange-traded product to offer their investors
With CHF 600M+ in ETI volume structured and 100+ issuances, the infrastructure is already running. You bring your strategy, and your investors. iMaps handles everything else.
