VRAI Virtus Real Asset Income ETF

SUMMARY PROSPECTUS | February 28, 2020

Virtus Private Credit Strategy Etf
(Ticker: Vpc)

a series of
ETFIS SERIES TRUST I

The Virtus Private Credit Strategy ETF (the “Fund”) is an exchange-traded fund (“ETF”).
Shares of the Fund are listed on the NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “Exchange”) and trade at market prices.
The market price for the Fund’s shares may be different from its net asset value per share.

To be eligible for inclusion in the Underlying Index, securities must (i) be U.S.-listed, (ii) have a market capitalization of more than U.S. $100 million, (iii) have a six-month average daily turnover greater than or equal to U.S. $250,000, (iv) have traded for at least 90% of the total trading days over the last six months, and (v) must have paid dividends consistently over the previous three years. Securities within this universe are then classified as either closed-end funds or BDCs, and are eligible for inclusion in the Underlying Index depending upon their exposure to private credit:

1.For closed-end funds: The closed-end fund’s portfolio must (i) include investments in floating or variable loan interests, collateralized loan obligations (“CLOs”), senior loans, and/or other investment vehicles that have private credit exposure, and (ii) have private credit exposure of at least 50%.

2.For BDCs: The BDC must have an investment objective of generating both current income and capital appreciation through debt and equity investments in small or middle-market companies by employing private credit strategies. Private credit strategies include providing capital through (i) direct origination of senior secured loans, (ii) unsecured debt, (iii) lien debt, (iv) subordinate debt, (v) mezzanine financing, (vi) preferred equity, (vii) rescue financing, (viii) specialty lending, and (ix) distressed credit.  These private credit strategies generally include the origination of loans by non-bank lenders to small- to middle-market companies who have below investment grade credit ratings, or the investment in debt or equity securities of those companies.

All BDCs that meet the selection criteria above will be included in the Underlying Index, and the closed-end fund universe will be screened to eliminate the quartile with the largest absolute value of premiums or discounts. Underlying Index constituents are weighted by dividend yield, with the weight of a single security capped at 5% and a floor of 0.3% at each rebalance, although each BDC with a market capitalization of less than $250 million will be capped at 1% at each rebalance. All BDCs and closed-end funds included in the Underlying Index will be listed on U.S. stock exchanges or other alternative trading systems (ATS), such as electronic communication networks (ECNs).

The Underlying Index is reconstituted annually and rebalanced quarterly. The Fund is reconstituted and rebalanced in accordance with the Underlying Index.

Under normal market conditions, the Fund will invest not less than 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in equity securities of U.S.-listed BDCs and closed-end funds that employ private credit strategies by investing a majority of their assets in private credit instruments. Private credit instruments include floating or variable loan interests, CLOs, senior loans, and BDCs and other investment vehicles that employ private credit strategies as described above. The Underlying Funds will invest in private credit instruments that are rated below investment grade.

The Fund will not seek to “beat” the performance of the Underlying Index and will not seek temporary defensive measures when markets decline or appear overvalued. Instead, the Fund uses a “passive” or indexing investment approach to try to approximate the investment performance of the Underlying Index by investing in a portfolio of securities that generally replicates the Underlying Index; however, there may be times when the Fund does not hold every security in the Underlying Index. The Adviser expects that, over time, the correlation between the Fund’s performance before fees and expenses and that of the Underlying Index will be 95% or better. A figure of 100% would indicate perfect correlation.

The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., holds more than 25% of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries approximately to the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. The Fund is non-diversified, which means that it can invest a greater percentage of its assets in any one issuer than a diversified fund can.

also carry risks associated with unclear ownership and market access constraints. In addition, at times, the Underlying Funds may hold a significant portion of their assets in cash or cash equivalents (e.g., after divesting their interests in a portfolio company upon the portfolio company’s initial public offering, merger or recapitalization). This may result in lower returns than if the Underlying Fund had invested such cash or cash equivalents in successful portfolio companies. Closed-end funds and BDCs that provide exposure to private credit may also have concentrated investment portfolios, consisting of a relatively small number of holdings, which may be adversely impacted by the poor performance of a small number of investments.

Investments in Closed-End Funds Risk. Investing in closed-end funds subjects the Fund to those risks affecting the closed-end fund, including the possibility that the value of the underlying securities held by the closed-end fund could decrease or the portfolio becomes illiquid. The shares of closed-end funds may trade at a discount or premium to, or at, their NAV. Moreover, the Fund and its shareholders will incur its pro rata share of a closed-end fund’s expenses, which will reduce the Fund’s performance. Closed-end funds are also able to utilize leverage to a greater degree than other investment companies, such as open-end funds or ETFs. As a result, the Fund may be exposed indirectly to leverage through an investment in closed-end funds, which may expose the Fund to higher volatility in the market value of such securities and the possibility that the Fund’s long-term returns on such securities (and, indirectly, the long-term returns of the Fund’s Shares) will be diminished. In addition, investments by the Fund in a closed-end fund are subject to, among other risks, the risk that the listing exchange may halt trading of the closed-end fund’s shares.

In addition to the general risks above for closed-end funds, the 1940 Act imposes certain restraints upon the operations of a BDC. For example, BDCs are required to invest at least 70% of their total assets primarily in securities of private companies or thinly traded U.S. public companies, cash, cash equivalents, U.S. government securities and high-quality debt investments that mature in one year or less.

Additionally, a BDC may incur indebtedness only in amounts such that the BDC’s asset coverage equals at least 200% after such incurrence. These limitations on asset mix and leverage may prohibit the way that the BDC raises capital. BDCs generally invest in less mature private companies, which involve greater risk than well-established, publicly-traded companies. The Fund will indirectly bear its proportionate share of any management fees and other operating expenses incurred by the BDCs and of any performance-based or incentive fees payable by the BDCs in which it invests, in addition to the management fees paid by the Fund. Incentive fees may create an incentive for a BDC’s manager to make investments that are risky or more speculative than would be the case in the absence of such compensation arrangements, and may also encourage the BDC’s manager to use leverage to increase the return on the BDC’s investments. The use of leverage by BDCs, while subject to the limitations discussed above, magnifies gains and losses on amounts invested and increases the risks associated with investing in BDCs. A BDC may make investments with a larger amount of risk of volatility and loss of principal than other investment options and may also be highly speculative and aggressive.

The Underlying Funds may from time to time be engaged in proxy contests with activist investors who are attempting to influence the Underlying Fund to take actions that the activist investors believe will increase the price of the company’s securities. There is a risk that, if the activist investors are successful, the market price of the company’s securities will fall or be diluted. In addition, the Underlying Fund may no longer be viable after taking the actions advocated by the activist investors, and if liquidated may generate significant capital gains that may ultimately be passed on to the Fund’s shareholders.

Equity Risk. The prices of equity securities rise and fall daily. These price movements may result from factors affecting individual issuers, industries or the stock market as a whole. In addition, equity markets tend to move in cycles which may cause stock prices to fall over a short and extended periods of time. In a declining stock market, stock prices for all companies (including those in the Fund’s portfolio) may decline, regardless of their long-term prospects. Common stock is subordinated to preferred stocks, bonds and other debt instruments in a company’s capital structure, in terms of priority to corporate income, and therefore will be subject to greater dividend risk than preferred stocks or debt instruments of such issuers.

Senior Loan Risk. The risks of investing in senior loans are similar to the risks of investing in junk bonds, although senior loans may be senior and secured, whereas junk bonds often are subordinated and unsecured. Investments in senior loans are generally below investment grade and are considered speculative because of the credit risk of

their issuers. Companies issuing senior loans are more likely to default on their payments of interest and principal owed, and such defaults could reduce the Underlying Fund’s NAV and income distributions. An economic downturn generally leads to a higher non-payment rate, and a senior loan may lose significant value before a default occurs. Although senior loans may be secured by collateral, there can be no assurance that such collateral would satisfy the borrower’s obligation in the event of non-payment of interest or principal, or that such collateral could be readily liquidated. In the event of the bankruptcy of a borrower, an Underlying Fund’s access to the collateral may be limited by and, therefore, the Underlying Fund could experience delays or limitations with respect to its ability to realize the benefits of the collateral securing a loan. Economic and other events (whether real or perceived) can reduce the demand for certain senior loans or senior loans generally, which may reduce market prices. Senior loans are also subject to the risk of price declines and to increases in prevailing interest rates, although floating-rate instruments, such as the senior loans in which the Underlying Funds generally invest, are substantially less exposed to this risk than fixed-rate debt instruments. No active trading market may exist for certain senior loans, which may impair the ability of an Underlying Fund to realize full value of a loan in the event of it needs to sell the loan. Such senior loans may therefore be considered illiquid. To the extent that a secondary market does exist for certain loans, the market may be subject to volatility, irregular trading activity, wide bid/ask spreads, decreased liquidity and extended trade settlement periods, any of which may impair the Underlying Fund’s ability to sell loans within its desired time frame or at an acceptable price and its ability to accurately value existing and prospective investments. Extended trade settlement periods for certain loans may result in cash not being immediately available to an Underlying Fund upon sale of the loan. As a result, the Underlying Fund may have to sell other investments with shorter settlement periods or engage in borrowing transactions to raise cash to meet its obligations.

Collateralized Loan Obligations. CLOs are normally privately offered and sold (that is, they are not registered under the securities laws) and may be characterized as illiquid securities; however, an active dealer market may exist for CLOs that qualify for Rule 144A transactions. The risks of an investment in a CLO depend largely on the type of the collateral securities and the class of the CLO invested. Some CLOs have credit ratings, but are typically issued in various classes with various priorities, offering investors various maturity and credit risk characteristics, often categorized as senior, mezzanine and subordinated/equity according to their degree of risk. If there are defaults or the relevant collateral otherwise underperforms, scheduled payments to senior tranches of such securities take precedence over those of mezzanine tranches, and scheduled payments to mezzanine tranches have a priority in right of payment to subordinated/equity tranches. As a result, CLOs may present risks similar to those of other types of debt securities, although such risks may be of greater significance for CLOs depending upon the ranking in the capital structure held by the investor in the CLO. In addition to the general risks associated with investing in debt securities, CLOs carry additional risks, including, without limitation, the possibility that distributions from collateral securities will not be adequate to make interest or other payments, the quality of the collateral may decline in value or default, the CLO may be subordinate to other classes, values may be volatile, and disputes with the issuer may produce unexpected investment results.

Debt Securities Risks. Risks of investments in debt securities include, without limitation, credit risk, interest rate risk, liquidity risk, maturity risk and prepayment risk. These risks could affect the value of investments in which the Underlying Funds may invest, possibly causing an Underlying Fund’s share price and total return to be reduced and fluctuate more than other types of investments.

•Credit Risk. The value of debt securities is dependent on the creditworthiness of their issuers. A deterioration in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer, changes in the market’s perception of the issuer’s financial strength, or a deterioration in general economic conditions may have an adverse effect on the value of the investment and may cause an issuer to fail to pay principal and interest when due.

•Interest Rate Risk. Certain of the debt securities in which an Underlying Fund invests will have variable interest rates that reset periodically based on benchmarks such as the prime rate, so an increase in interest rates from their present levels may make it more difficult for issuers to service their obligations under the debt securities that the Underlying Fund may hold. In general, rising interest rates will negatively impact the price of a fixed rate debt instrument and falling interest rates will have a positive effect on price. Adjustable rate instruments also react to interest rate changes in a similar manner, although generally to a lesser degree (depending, however, on the characteristics of the reset terms, including the index chosen, frequency of reset

and reset caps or floors, among other factors). Interest rate sensitivity is generally more pronounced and less predictable in instruments with uncertain payment or prepayment schedules.

•Liquidity Risk. Liquidity risk is the risk that a debt security may be difficult to sell at an advantageous time or price due to limited market demand (resulting from a downgrade, a decline in price, or adverse conditions within the relevant market).

•Maturity Risk. The value of an Underlying Fund’s debt investments is dependent on their maturity. Generally, the longer the maturity of a debt security, the greater its sensitivity to changes in interest rates.

•Prepayment Risk. This is the risk that the issuers of debt securities will prepay them at a time when interest rates have declined. Because interest rates have declined, an Underlying Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds in debt securities with lower interest rates, which can reduce the Underlying Fund’s returns.

Junk Bonds or High Yield Securities Risk.  High yield securities and unrated securities of similar credit quality are considered to be speculative with respect to the issuer’s continuing ability to make principal and interest payments and are generally subject to greater levels of credit quality risk than investment grade securities. High yield securities are usually issued by companies, including smaller and medium capitalization companies, without long track records of sales and earnings, or with questionable credit strength. These companies may be particularly affected by interest rate increases, as they may find it more difficult to borrow money to continue or expand operations, or may have difficulty in repaying floating rate loans. These fixed income securities are considered below “investment-grade.” The retail secondary market for these “junk bonds” may be less liquid than that of higher-rated fixed income securities, and adverse conditions could make it difficult at times to sell these securities or could result in lower prices than higher-rated fixed income securities. These risks can reduce the value of the shares of an Underlying Fund and the income it earns.

Small and Micro Capitalization Companies Risk. Investing in the securities of small and micro capitalization companies generally involves greater risk (and substantially greater risk for micro capitalization companies) than investing in larger, more established companies. The securities of small and micro capitalization companies usually have more limited marketability and therefore may be more volatile and less liquid than securities of larger, more established companies or the market averages in general. Because small and micro capitalization companies normally have fewer shares outstanding than larger companies, it may be more difficult to buy or sell significant amounts of their shares without an unfavorable impact on prevailing prices. Small and micro capitalization companies often have limited product lines, markets, or financial resources and lack management depth, making them more susceptible to market pressures. Small and micro capitalization companies are typically subject to greater changes in earnings and business prospects than larger, more established companies. Small and micro capitalization companies may be particularly affected by interest rate increases, as they may find it more difficult to borrow money to continue or expand operations, or may have difficulty in repaying any loans which are floating rate. The foregoing risks are generally increased for smaller capitalization companies as compared to companies with larger capitalizations.

Liquidity Risk. Liquidity risk exists when a particular investment is difficult to purchase or sell. If the Fund invests in illiquid securities or current portfolio securities become illiquid, it may reduce the returns of the Fund because the Fund may be unable to sell the illiquid securities at an advantageous time or price. Additionally, closed-end funds and BDCs are not limited in their ability to invest in illiquid securities. In the event that an Underlying Fund voluntarily or involuntarily liquidates its portfolio assets during periods of infrequent trading of its securities, the Underlying Fund may not receive full value for those assets, which will reduce the value of the Underlying Fund’s shares, and in turn, the value of the Fund’s investment in such shares.

Issuer Risk.  The performance of the Fund depends on the performance of the issuers of the individual securities in which Fund invests. Poor performance by any issuer may cause the value of its securities, and the value of the Fund’s Shares, to decline.

Concentration Risk. A fund concentrated in an industry or sector is likely to present more risks than a fund that is broadly diversified over several industries or sectors. Compared to the broad market, an individual industry or sector may be more strongly affected by changes in the economic climate, broad market shifts, moves in a particular dominant stock or regulatory changes.

Non-Diversified Fund Risk. The Fund is considered non-diversified and can invest a greater portion of assets in securities of individual issuers than a diversified fund. As a result, changes in the market value of a single investment could cause greater fluctuations in share price than would occur in a diversified fund.

Market Risk. Market risk refers to the risk that the value of securities in the Fund’s portfolio may decline due to daily fluctuations in the securities markets that are generally beyond the Fund’s control, including the quality of the Fund’s investments, economic conditions, adverse investor sentiment, poor management decisions, lower demand for a company’s goods or services, pandemics, epidemics, natural or environmental disasters, and general equity market conditions. In a declining market, the prices for all securities (including those in the Fund’s portfolio) may decline, regardless of their long-term prospects. Security values tend to move in cycles, with periods when securities markets generally rise and periods when they generally decline. During a “flash crash,” the market prices of the Fund’s Shares may decline suddenly and significantly. Such a decline may not reflect the performance of the portfolio securities held by the Fund. Flash crashes may cause Authorized Participants and other market makers to limit or cease trading in the Fund’s Shares for temporary or longer periods. Shareholders could suffer significant losses to the extent that they sell Shares at these temporarily low market prices.

Passive Strategy/Index Risk. The Fund is managed with a passive investment strategy that seeks to track the performance of the Underlying Index. This differs from an actively managed fund, which typically seeks to outperform a benchmark index. As a result, the Fund may hold constituent securities of the Underlying Index regardless of the current or projected performance of a specific security or the relevant sector as a whole. Maintaining investments in securities regardless of market conditions or the performance of individual securities could cause the Fund’s returns to be lower than if the Fund employed an active strategy. The Fund will seek to track the Underlying Index in all market conditions, including during adverse market conditions when other funds may seek to take temporary defensive measures (such as investing significantly in cash or cash equivalents). Accordingly, unless the Underlying Index allocates significant portions of its assets to cash and cash equivalents during times of adverse market or economic conditions, the Fund may be subject to a higher level of market risk during such times than other funds.

Index Tracking Risk. While the Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Underlying Index closely (i.e., to achieve a high degree of correlation with the Underlying Index), it will not seek to beat the performance of the Underlying Index. Further, the Fund’s return may not match or achieve a high degree of correlation with the returns of the Underlying Index due to operating expenses, transaction costs, cash flows, regulatory requirements and operational inefficiencies.

Calculation Methodology. The Underlying Index relies on various sources of information to assess the criteria of issuers included in the Underlying Index, including information that may be based on assumptions and estimates. The Fund, the Adviser, and Indxx cannot offer assurances that the Underlying Index’s calculation methodology or sources of information will provide an accurate assessment of included issuers.

Authorized Participant Risk. The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as Authorized Participants, none of which are obligated to engage in creation or redemption transactions. To the extent these Authorized Participants exit the business or are unable to process creation and/or redemption orders and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to process creation and/or redemption orders, in either of these cases, Shares of the Fund may trade like closed-end fund shares at a discount to net asset value (“NAV”) and possibly face delisting.

Costs of Buying or Selling Shares. Investors buying or selling Shares in the secondary market will pay brokerage commissions or other charges imposed by brokers as determined by those brokers. Brokerage commissions are often a fixed amount and may be a significant proportional cost for investors seeking to buy or sell relatively small amounts of Shares. In addition, secondary market investors will also incur the cost of the difference between the price that an investor is willing to pay for Shares (the “bid” price) and the price at which an investor is willing to sell Shares (the “ask” price). This difference in bid and ask prices is often referred to as the “spread” or “bid/ask spread.” The bid/ask spread varies over time for Shares based on trading volume and market liquidity, and is generally lower if the Fund’s Shares have more trading volume and market liquidity and higher if the Fund’s Shares have little trading volume and market liquidity. Further, increased market volatility may cause increased bid/ask spreads. Due to the costs of buying or selling Shares, including bid/ask spreads, frequent trading of Shares may significantly reduce investment results and an investment in Shares may not be advisable for investors who anticipate regularly making small investments.

Fluctuation of NAV; Unit Premiums and Discounts. The NAV of the Fund’s Shares will generally fluctuate with changes in the market value of the Fund’s securities holdings. The market prices of Shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in the Fund’s NAV and supply and demand of Shares on the Exchange or any other exchange on which Shares are traded. It cannot be predicted whether Shares will trade below, at or above their NAV. Price differences may be due, in large part, to the fact that supply and demand forces at work in the secondary trading market for Shares will be closely related to, but not identical to, the same forces influencing the prices of the securities of the Fund trading individually or in the aggregate at any point in time. The market prices of Shares may deviate significantly from the NAV of the Shares during periods of market volatility. While the creation/redemption feature is designed to make it likely that Shares normally will trade close to the Fund’s NAV, disruptions to creations and redemptions and/or market volatility may result in trading prices that differ significantly from the Fund’s NAV. If an investor purchases Shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV of the Shares or sells at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV of the Shares, then the investor may sustain losses that are in addition to any losses caused by a decrease in NAV. Additionally, to the extent that the underlying securities of the Fund trade on an exchange that is closed when the Exchange is open, there are likely to be deviations between current pricing of an underlying security and stale security pricing (i.e., the last quote from the foreign exchange market), resulting in premiums or discounts to NAV that are greater than those experienced by other ETFs.