Here's a fun parlor trick of modern finance: you can now buy a slice of a company that hasn't gone public yet, inside a fund that trades on an exchange every day. Tema ETFs is doing exactly that, using special purpose vehicles to bring private-company exposure into publicly traded funds, with Anthropic, Kalshi and Polymarket among the names now accessible through its ETFs.

The Tema Photonics & Optical ETF (LAZR) has made Anthropic one of its largest holdings through an SPV. Anthropic represented about 12% of LAZR, according to Tema's July positioning update.

That's a notable addition to an ETF focused on the infrastructure powering artificial intelligence. LAZR invests in companies involved in photonics, optical connectivity, and technologies that move data faster between chips, servers, and data centers. So the fund is essentially betting on the pipes that feed AI, and now it also owns a piece of one of the labs doing the eating.

The structure gives investors pre-IPO exposure to Anthropic without directly owning shares in the private company.

DICE Takes the Strategy Beyond AI

Tema is applying a similar approach to the prediction-market boom through the Tema Trading & Prediction Markets ETF (DICE).

DICE provides exposure to Kalshi and Polymarket, two prominent private prediction-market platforms, alongside publicly traded companies involved in trading and financial-market infrastructure.

That makes the ETF different from a conventional thematic fund. Rather than simply owning listed companies benefiting from prediction markets, DICE also gives investors exposure to the private companies building the market itself.

ETFs as a Private-Market Bridge

The strategy highlights how ETF structures are evolving beyond traditional baskets of publicly traded stocks.

For investors, the appeal is straightforward: an ETF can provide a liquid, exchange-traded vehicle while its portfolio reaches into private companies.

But the structure also introduces an important distinction. Pre-IPO ETF exposure isn't the same as owning a publicly traded stock. Private-company valuations can be updated less frequently, and the ETF's market price can diverge from the value of its underlying holdings.

Still, as more closely watched startups approach potential IPOs, SPV-based ETFs could give investors another way to participate before the opening bell rings.