The DWS Invest CROCI Intellectual Capital fund is based on a decade of research at the investment firm showing that economic growth and equity returns are increasingly tied to companies with comparatively low capital and labour but a high concentration of intangible assets, or intellectual capital. The new fund has a standard seeding share class, with an annual all-in fee of 40 bps. CROCI refers to the firm's proprietary "cash return on capital invested" analysis.  

“DWS’s CROCI valuation investment approach has measured intangible assets since 1996 and is the perfect analysis tool for finding future revenue generators linked to intellectual capital," said Francesco Curto, co-head of research and head of the CROCI investment strategy and valuation group.

The Deutsche Bank-owned fund manager said it is taking an established investment approach and using it to capture the structural shift in the economy out of physical capital into intangible capital. "The result is a unique vehicle for positioning for future growth,” Curto said.