16-04-2026 • Insight

NextGen Global Small-Cap Equity ETF

Active ETF in focus

Active ETFs are reshaping global investment markets, with investors increasingly looking to combine flexibility, transparency and performance potential. Yet the growing range of options can make it harder to determine what to select, and why.

Drawing on decades of investment expertise, Robeco has developed an ETF range that is driven by data and refined through continuous innovation. The result is a set of solutions that are distinct in design, yet consistent in philosophy; built to support stronger, more resilient portfolios.

Authors

Anna Heldring

Investment writer

Jessica Monkivitch

Investment Writer

Top keywords

A unique solution for small caps

Small caps represent over 10% of global free-float market capitalization, yet remain under-allocated in many portfolios. Historically, they have delivered attractive long-term returns and offered meaningful diversification versus large caps. While recent years have been challenging, the key driver of underperformance has been valuation, not fundamentals.

Now trading at their steepest discount to large caps in two decades, the opportunity is increasingly hard to ignore, raising the question of how best to access it.

Capturing this opportunity is complex. The global small-cap universe spans nearly 4,000 stocks, with lower analyst coverage, higher dispersion, and more varied business models. This creates fertile ground for alpha, but makes traditional stock picking difficult to scale. Passive approaches, meanwhile, may lead to unintended exposure to lower-quality companies.

Robeco’s NextGen Global Small-Cap Equity ETF is designed to navigate this complexity, combining the breadth of the universe with a disciplined, data-driven approach.

How the investor benefits

1. Disciplined access to small caps
The quant engine powering this ETF systematically processes the global small-cap universe, applying proven signals such as value, quality, momentum and earnings revisions in a consistent and unbiased way.
2. AI-enhanced robustness
Our NextGen approach builds on this foundation by incorporating machine learning. This helps identify non-linear relationships and interaction effects between signals, allowing the model to adapt to different company characteristics and market conditions: an important advantage in the diverse small-cap universe.
3. Meaningful diversification
In an environment of increasing market concentration, small caps offer a differentiated source of return. With a tracking error of around 3 to 4%, this ETF is positioned as a diversified allocation, aiming to capture a broad set of small-cap opportunities without excessive concentration.