- Business
- Innovator ETFs Trust (the Trust) serves as a statutory trust that issues exchange-traded funds (ETFs), primarily through its sponsor Innovator Capital Management, LLC, which specializes in defined outcome ETFs designed to provide investors with predetermined upside potential up to a cap and downside buffers against losses over specific outcome periods. The Trust offers a broad suite of products including Buffer ETFs, Power Buffer ETFs, Defined Income ETFs, Defined Protection ETFs, and Equity Managed Floor ETFs; these strategies cover underlying assets such as U.S. equities, international developed markets via the iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA), small-cap stocks, growth-oriented equities, and broad market indices, with buffer levels typically ranging from 9% to 15% or 100% protection depending on the series. The Innovator International Developed Power Buffer ETF - September (ticker: ISEP), launched on September 1, 2023, exemplifies the Trust's international offerings by seeking to track the price return of EFA up to an annual cap while providing a 15% buffer against the first 15% of losses over a one-year outcome period from September to September before fees and expenses.
Headquartered at 200 W. Front Street in Wheaton, Illinois, the Trust operates under the oversight of Innovator Capital Management, which was founded in 2017 by ETF industry veterans Bruce Bond and John Southard, previously co-founders of PowerShares. The firm's ETFs are listed principally on the Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc., and target retail and institutional investors seeking risk-managed equity exposure across domestic and international markets, with geographic focus spanning U.S., developed international (e.g., Europe, Australasia, Far East), and select growth segments.
In a transformative development announced on December 1, 2025, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Innovator Capital Management in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at approximately $2 billion, expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, thereby integrating the sponsor's approximately $28-30 billion in assets under management across 159-161 defined outcome ETFs into Goldman Sachs Asset & Wealth Management to expand its active ETF capabilities. Recent product expansions include the September 2024 launches of the U.S. Small Cap Power Buffer ETF (KSEP), Growth-100 Power Buffer ETF (NSEP), and Equity Defined Protection ETF - 1 Yr September (ZSEP), enhancing the Trust's lineup with 15% buffer and 100% downside protection strategies amid heightened market volatility and investor demand for protection.