The people
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Working at OMERS Ventures
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On the TechTO stage
Innovation in health tech amidst a global pandemic
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Founding Initiatives & Persevering
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About
OMERS Ventures was created in 2011 as the venture arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees' Retirement System, one of Canada's largest pension funds. John Ruffolo told the TechTO stage in August 2021 how it started, and the story is not a tidy one. He was a Deloitte partner watching his technology clients disappear for lack of Canadian venture capital, and he spent years publicly criticising the pension funds for doing nothing about it. Then OMERS CEO Michael Nobrega — a former colleague, and Ruffolo said the only person at OMERS who believed in the idea — called and asked him to allocate capital to startups. Ruffolo's reply was that he was a consultant: 'I consult, I don't do.' He took the job anyway, having quietly agreed with Deloitte that he could return if it failed. The firm went on to make growth investments in Shopify, Wattpad, Hootsuite, Hopper and DuckDuckGo, among others. It has contracted sharply since Ruffolo's departure. A €300 million European fund launched in 2019 and a US$750 million transatlantic fund in 2020; the firm exited Europe in 2023, four years in, and closed its London office. By July 2025 headcount was down to 12 and the firm was cutting its US investment team and redirecting focus to the Canadian market. It still invests, at a much lower volume — six deals in 2024 against 29 in 2022.
Backers
OMERS Ventures is not a venture-backed company — it is the venture capital arm of OMERS, the Ontario Municipal Employees' Retirement System, and its capital comes from that pension plan. Ruffolo told the TechTO stage in 2021 that the fund exists because OMERS CEO Michael Nobrega called him after years of Ruffolo publicly criticising Canadian pension funds for doing nothing for the technology sector, and asked him to do it himself.
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Quick answers
What is OMERS Ventures?
The venture capital arm of OMERS, the Ontario Municipal Employees' Retirement System pension fund. It was founded in Toronto in 2011 to put pension capital into Canadian technology startups at a time when, as founder John Ruffolo put it on the TechTO stage, there was 'virtually no venture capital available in Canada.'
Who founded OMERS Ventures?
John Ruffolo, in 2011, who ran it as CEO. He came from Deloitte, where he was a partner and the Canadian industry leader for technology, media and telecommunications. He has since left and now runs Maverix Private Equity, a separate Toronto firm.
What companies has OMERS Ventures backed?
Shopify, Wattpad, Hootsuite, Hopper, DuckDuckGo, Wave, Xanadu, Rover, TouchBistro, League and Desire2Learn among others — more than 40 North American technology companies during Ruffolo's tenure. Its site also lists Cohere. The Shopify investment is the one Ruffolo still tells the story of: a 30-minute coffee with Toby Lütke that ran two and a half hours and never got to the company.
Is OMERS Ventures still investing?
Yes, but at a fraction of its former pace and a narrower footprint. It exited Europe in 2023 and closed its London office; by July 2025 it had cut headcount to 12, laid off members of its US investment team, and said it would increase its focus on the Canadian market while pursuing selective US opportunities. It did six deals in 2024, against 29 in 2022.