Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System has named a new head of venture capital investing, promoting Saar Pikar to lead a revamped strategy that emphasizes Canadian deals over those in the United States.
Mr. Pikar told portfolio companies of OMERS Ventures in an e-mail, obtained by The Globe and Mail, that he has taken on an expanded role as head of ventures and growth, and that they will see a “strategic shift” from the division.
He becomes the third person to head the group in less than two years, replacing San Francisco-based Michael Yang, who left OMERS on July 21.
Mr. Yang launched OMERS Ventures’s U.S. office in Palo Alto, Calif., in 2019, then led the Ventures group after Damien Steel left in 2023 to be chief executive officer of climate technology startup Deep Sky Corp. Mr. Steel recently departed Deep Sky.
OMERS has decided “to increase our focus on investment activity in the Canadian market while continuing to pursue selective opportunities in the U.S. through both direct investments and strategic partnerships,” Mr. Pikar wrote.
He also announced that OMERS Ventures partner Laura Lenz has been promoted to managing director.
“As the first Canadian pension plan to invest directly in early-stage technology, with years of leadership in this space, we are confident that this evolution of our strategy allows us to channel our resources where we can deliver the greatest value to portfolio companies and our members,” OMERS spokesperson Don Peat said in an e-mailed statement.
Online tech news site Betakit was first to report on the changes.
The change stems from a broader review of OMERS’s private-equity business, which is pivoting toward more investing through third-party funds and as a co-investment partner, with a North American focus.
Last fall, OMERS decided to stop making direct private-equity investments in Europe – a year after pulling out of that continent’s VC market – and global head of private equity Michael Graham retired.
Since August, the investment and operations staff at OMERS Ventures has declined from about 24 people to 13, a review of the company website shows. Some of those staff chose to leave to pursue other opportunities.
OMERS invests on behalf of nearly 640,000 Ontario public-service workers, including nurses, firefighters and police officers, and manages $138-billion of assets. Its $27.5-billion private-equity portfolio gained 9.5 per cent last year, beating its internal benchmark of 8.7 per cent.
OMERS was the first major Canadian institution to recommit to venture capital after the 2008-09 financial crisis, starting in 2011 under founding OMERS Ventures chief John Ruffolo, who left in 2018.
The timing was ideal: Canada’s tech renaissance was in its early stages and OMERS backed several future domestic tech stars including Shopify Inc., Jobber, Wave Financial Inc., Wattpad Corp. and Hopper Inc.
But the information technology sector has been in a slump since late 2021, with the exception of AI and quantum computing. Investment returns have been poor, deals have been scarce and OMERS Ventures has been less active than it once was.
It has participated in at least two Canadian deals announced this year, leading a US$20-million investment into wealth management technology vendor OneVest Technologies Inc., and backing small business financial management platform provider Float Financial Solutions Inc. in a Goldman Sachs-led $70-million deal.
In general, Canadian pension plans “are definitely backing off being such aggressive partners that they tried to be four years ago” in tech, said Matt Roberts, managing director of venture capital coverage with Royal Bank of Canada’s RBCx innovation banking arm.
Mr. Roberts said he hopes Ms. Lenz, a venture capital industry veteran, “can direct more of the energy and insights from OMERS Ventures into Canadian companies that need a strong anchor tenant in the ecosystem right now.”
Mr. Pikar has been a managing director on OMERS’s growth equity team, focusing on educational and financial technologies. He joined OMERS nearly seven years ago after a 12-year stint as CEO of CDI Technologies, now called Bluum.