---
title: "Vanguard files for a U.S. small-mid cap active ETF after last year’s three reached $161 million"
url: "https://etf.net/news/vanguard-files-for-a-u-s-small-mid-cap-active-etf-after-last-year-s-three-reached-161-million-2026-09-21"
published_at: "2026-09-21T12:10:21.243Z"
updated_at: "2026-09-21T12:10:21.243Z"
byline: "ETF.net Research"
---

# Vanguard files for a U.S. small-mid cap active ETF after last year’s three reached $161 million

Vanguard Quantitative Funds filed a Form 485APOS on September 18 for Vanguard U.S. Small-Mid Cap Active ETF, proposing a December 3, 2026 effective date, after last year’s three active equity ETFs reached $161 million.

By ETF.net Research. Published Sep 21, 2026.

Vanguard filed on Friday for a quantitative U.S. small- and mid-cap active ETF, with no ticker and no management fee yet named. The three Wellington-managed active equity ETFs it opened last November hold **$161 million**. Vanguard asked that the registration take effect on **December 3**. The shares may not be sold until it does.

Those funds began on November 14, 2025: U.S. Value Active VUSV at 0.30%, U.S. Growth Active VUSG at 0.35%, and Dividend Growth Active VDIG at 0.40%. They hold concentrated books of large-cap names under Wellington Management. This filing does not change their objectives, fees, or holdings.

Vanguard Morningstar Small-Cap ETF VB, an index fund, holds **$185 billion** at 0.03%. Vanguard Morningstar Mid-Cap ETF VO holds **$226 billion** at the same fee. The firm that offers this capitalization range at three basis points is proposing an active product in it at a price it has not named.

Closest to this filing’s benchmark is MFS Blended Research Small-Mid Cap ETF BRSM, which also manages risk relative to the Russell 2500. It opened on June 4, charges 0.38%, and holds **$27 million**.

Chart: **Millions** in active ETFs, hundreds of billions in VB and VO

## What Vanguard U.S. Small-Mid Cap Active ETF would do

The filing is a post-effective amendment, Form 485APOS, Post-Effective Amendment No. 75 to the Vanguard Quantitative Funds registration. The prospectus displays ticker XXXX and exchange XXX. The expense table leaves the management fee and other expenses unfilled. There is no 12b-1 fee. The fund had not commenced operations as of the statement of additional information.

The stated objective is long-term capital appreciation. That objective is non-fundamental: the board can change it without a shareholder vote. Under normal conditions the fund would invest at least **80%** of net assets, plus investment borrowings, in U.S. small- and mid-cap securities whose capitalizations generally sit in the range of the FTSE Russell 2500 Index, and it would use that index as its performance benchmark. The fund would use a quantitative process to evaluate securities in that benchmark and would seek a risk profile similar to the index.

## The Quantitative Funds trust runs this neighborhood

Vanguard Quantitative Funds houses Vanguard Strategic Equity Fund, a **$12.4 billion** quantitative small- and mid-cap mutual fund that has been open since 1995 and charges **0.17%**, and Vanguard Strategic Small-Cap Equity Fund, a $3.3 billion quantitative small-cap fund at 0.21%. The filing does not say the ETF would be a share class of either fund, and the benchmarks differ: Strategic Equity is run against a spliced small- and mid-cap index built on MSCI U.S. small- and mid-cap universes, not the Russell 2500. What they share is the trust, the quantitative process, and the small-mid capitalization range.

Jeff DeMaso, writing on Friday in The Independent Vanguard Adviser, put it in house terms: “Vanguard’s model-driven stock team, not Wellington, takes the next step in the firm’s active ETF build-out.” He also flagged the calendar, noting that Vanguard has delayed ETF launches before and that a slip into 2027 would not be a surprise. That is a third-party reading of Vanguard’s recent launch record, not a date in the filing.

## Active small-mid cap ETFs on the shelf

etf.net’s U.S. active small/mid-cap group has **48** ETFs. The larger funds mix fundamental stock-pickers and systematic, benchmark-aware processes, which is the neighborhood this filing describes. Fees on those funds run from 0.18% to 0.55%.

Table: What you would own, Fund, Expense ratio, Assets

Strategic Equity, in the same trust, charges 0.17%.

The terms a listing would meet are on the shelf: $27 million in the closest Russell 2500 analogue, $161 million in Vanguard’s three Wellington-managed active equity ETFs ten months in, and $185 billion and $226 billion in the firm’s small- and mid-cap index funds at three basis points.

Source: etf.net, https://etf.net/news/vanguard-files-for-a-u-s-small-mid-cap-active-etf-after-last-year-s-three-reached-161-million-2026-09-21. Please cite the page URL.