Nov 20The Significance of Deep Sky for Canada’s EconomyBy Shawn Chance Disclaimer: I’m not going to spend any time talking about the need for/urgency of or timelines associated with climate change or Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) which I view as table stakes for this post. If interested in deeper reading on that topic, I would direct you here. …5 min read5 min read
Nov 9The shifting VC landscape: doubling down on diligence (part 2)Written by Charlie Renzoni. Survey by Charlie Renzoni and McKenzie Foley. For the first time since the pandemic, both founders and VCs have once again been asking “Are VCs really open for business?”. …9 min read9 min read
Nov 9SaaS field notes: accounts receivableInitial Hypothesis: an underlooked function By Thomas Ryan, Eugene Lee and Justin Ouyang Over the past couple of years, the team at OMERS Ventures looking at SaaS businesses that serve functional business areas across multiple markets (Horizontal SaaS) has spent a number of cycles within the Office of the CFO…3 min read3 min read
Nov 9The shifting VC landscape: doubling down on diligenceAre VCs open for business? We surveyed >80 VCs, and the 2023 venture crisis is twice as impactful as COVID to VCs in how they spend their time. For the first time since the pandemic, both founders and VCs have once again been asking “Are VCs really open for business?”. …5 min read5 min read
Published inOMERS Ventures·Oct 23Cents and sensibility: the role of technology in driving financial wellnessPreviously we shared a high-level overview of the opportunities in fintech, highlighting financial wellness as an area we are especially interested in. The possibility of unlocking financial literacy and the ability to create compelling ethical products for those who have traditionally been underserved is vast. And just because a company…Fintech7 min readFintech7 min read
Published inOMERS Ventures·Oct 19OV 3.0. The constant state of changeEarlier this summer, I had the honor of being asked to lead OMERS Ventures (OV). Every investment organization within OMERS bears a tremendous responsibility for investing on behalf of over a half million pension members and delivering the returns necessary so they can confidently retire knowing that they will have…Venture Capital6 min readVenture Capital6 min read
Published inOMERS Ventures·Oct 5Emerging trends in AutotechContinuing our series on Vertical Software (VSaaS), we’re spotlighting the latest sector we’ve been focused on: Autotech. We’ve highlighted before that we believe successful VSaaS companies emerge from fragmented markets with low efficiency so it should come as no surprise that the automotive sector scores highly here. State of the Nation(s) The automotive industry…Autotech6 min readAutotech6 min read
Published inOMERS Ventures·Oct 2Unlocking the future of finance: why we are all-in on fintech.Despite pervasive fear, uncertainty and doubt, and rumors of fintech’s demise, we believe that the fintech venture opportunity has never been stronger. It’s a space we know well and as our thesis continues to evolve, we wanted to share our thinking, to make it clear where we are most interested…Fintech11 min readFintech11 min read
Published inOMERS Ventures·Sep 29From hiring to retention: HR tech’s most promising opportunitiesFor better or for worse, the HR function has consistently been overlooked — by everyone from investors to the media. Why? We’ve heard everything ranging from comments that the C-suite only turns to HR when things go awry to the notion that it’s just not an area of strategic focus…HR9 min readHR9 min read
Published inOMERS Ventures·Sep 28B2B Software, AI, and the Industry brainIt seems clear that AI will be a major platform shift and perhaps the most significant one in the history of software. Machine learning has already given those who can harness it unprecedent levels of insight. Generative AI promises to turn those insights into action. In a B2B software industry…AI10 min readAI10 min read
