OMERS Ventures Expands into Silicon Valley

OMERS Ventures (“OV”), one of Canada’s leading and most recognizable venture funds, recently announced an expansion into Silicon Valley. OV also announced the hiring of Michael Yang, a new Managing Partner. Michelle Killoran, Principal of OV, will be relocating to Silicon Valley.

The OV office will be located in the Bay Area and will complement the team headquartered in Toronto. Michael Yang has over a dozen years of venture capital investing experience, including work with August (sold to Assa Abloy), Automatic (sold to SiriusXM), and Healthline (sold to Summit Partners). He served for nine years as a managing director with Comcast Ventures, the venture capital arm of Comcast Corp.

OV currently manages $800 million across more than 35 investments in Canada, the United States and Europe. Managing Partner and Head of Ventures Damien Steel said the new offices and resources will allow OV to “deploy additional capital to startups in the U.S.”

In 2018, OV also expressed interest in opening more international offices in London and Singapore. With the expansion into Silicon Valley and potential expansion into other major economic hubs, OV seems to be looking to take advantage of the rapidly developing technology sector in these markets, broaden its investment opportunities and leveraging its existing networks and experience.

Author: Abid Khalid