AVSC vs ESSC

AVSCAAvantis U.S. Small Cap Equity ETF

ESSCCEventide Small Cap ETF

In short

AVSC Avantis's whole-field small cap fund: roughly 1,500 US small companies in one ticker, run by the manager's own rules rather than a published index, at 0.25% a year.

ESSC Eventide takes its values-based screen down the market cap ladder: an active, long-only US small-cap portfolio measured against the Bloomberg U.S. 2000, at 0.49%. Launched in 2025, so the screen is the pitch, not the history.

Stated mandate

AVSC The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation and invests primarily in a diversified group of U.S. small-cap companies across market sectors and industries, with at least 80% of assets normally invested in U.S. small-cap equity securities.

ESSC The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation by primarily investing in U.S. small-cap companies that Eventide identifies as creating value for stakeholders under its values-based screening criteria. It is actively managed using a long-only approach.

Why people hold it

• AVSC 0.25% a year versus a 0.52% median for active US small-cap funds. Less than half the going rate for a hands-on manager.
• Roughly 1,500 holdings spread across sectors and industries, so one small-cap blowup barely dents the fund.
• One of the strongest all-round implementations in the active US small-cap group on cost, portfolio build and ease of trading.
• Pays quarterly, trades with steady daily volume, and pulled in over a billion dollars since its 2022 launch.

• ESSC The screen is the point. An active, long-only manager buying US small caps it judges to be creating value for stakeholders, not an index fund with a label bolted on.
• 0.49% a year for hands-on small-cap stock picking, a shade under the middle of its actively managed small-cap peer group.
• Four signals in the mix (growth, momentum, quality, value) rather than a single style bet, with the Bloomberg U.S. 2000 Total Return Index as the yardstick.

Worth knowing

• AVSC Undiluted small-cap equity, kept at least 80% invested in the asset class. It rides the small-cap cycle with deeper swings than a large-cap fund.
• No declared index to check it against. The manager's stock-selection rules are the product, so you are buying a process, not a published benchmark.
• Its sibling AVUV works the value slice of the same universe at the same 0.25%. Own both and you are doubling up on overlapping small-cap names.

• ESSC Opened in late September 2025, so there is very little performance or risk history behind it yet.
• Still a small, lightly traded fund, which can mean wider gaps between bid and ask than the household names in the small-cap aisle.
• At 0.49% it runs about double systematic small-cap peers such as AVUV and AVSC at 0.25%, so the screen has to carry that gap.

Full AVSC profile⁠

Full ESSC profile⁠