Canada’s largest pension fund, The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), is more than doubling its investments in Canadian technology companies this year.
This will be the second round of funding which OMERS Ventures, the venture capital arm of OMERS, will provide to local tech businesses and it will be larger than its previous fund which amounted to $200 million, said John Ruffolo, CEO of OMERS Ventures.
Recently, OMERS Ventures led a $100 million funding round for Shopify Inc., an online shopping and retail platform. OMERS Ventures’ portfolio includes Canadian companies such as social media dashboard HootSuite; big data infrastructure firm, Ranovus; password manager, PasswordBox; and several others.
While money for the first round of funding came from the venture firm’s parent OMERS, outside sources may be involved this time, Ruffolo said in an interview with newswire service Reuters.
He said OMERS Ventures is negotiating additional capital from at least one external strategic partner.