Ontario Teachers' looks to increase venture capital investments
The Canadian Press
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board says it plans to more than double its investments in its venture capital and growth equity arm.
The pension fund manager says it is looking to make investments in the sector comprise seven to 10 per cent of its net assets over the next five to 10 years, up from about three per cent today.
As part of the shift, Ontario Teachers' says Teachers' Innovation Platform will be renamed Teachers' Venture Growth (TVG).
TVG currently holds a $7.1-billion portfolio including 20 direct investments and several partnerships.
It plans to hire 12 people over the next year and will also open a new office in San Francisco.
Ontario Teachers' had $241.6 billion in net assets at the end of last year.
P3 PUBLIC PENSIONS FUND PRIVATE CAPTIALI$M
Pension giant Teachers' venture platform
could triple its portfolio by 2030
Innovation fund would grow to more than
$21 billion by 2030 if projections hold
Author of the article:Barbara Shecter
Author of the article:Barbara Shecter
Publishing date:Apr 19, 2022 • 
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board’s venture platform is planning to double and potentially triple the size of its portfolio over the next five to 10 years.
The target was unveiled Tuesday, less than three years after Teachers’ Innovation Platform made its initial splash by investing in Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX.
To help reach the goal of the venture portfolio accounting for seven to 10 per cent of the Canadian pension giant’s overall net assets, up from three per cent today, its staff will be substantially beefed up over the next year and a new office will be opened in San Francisco.
The platform will also operate under a new name — Teachers’ Venture Growth — to better reflect its focus on late-stage venture and growth equity investments in technology companies.
If Teachers’ reaches its target portfolio size of $300 billion by 2030, the venture platform’s projections put it on target to contribute at least $21 billion, up from $7.1 billion today.
Led by Teachers’ veteran Olivia Steedman, the platform has produced double-digit annual returns since its formation in 2019, and will bulk up over the next year with 12 hires and a new office in San Francisco. That’s in addition to around two dozen people already working from Toronto, London, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Steedman said the anticipated portfolio growth will be generated by a combination of direct investments and investments through funds.
“It’ll be around $2 billion a year that we need to put to work,” she said. “And we will continue to split that as we’ve been doing … Probably a quarter of that will go towards funds, with the balance going towards the direct style of investing.”
The platform led seven of the 10 deals it participated in last year, and Steedman said she is “keen that the market understands that we have that capability.”
She added that Teachers’ Venture Growth is seeking to establish itself as a platform that can go beyond deal execution, given it is backed by seasoned professionals such as Rick Prostko, a veteran Silicon Valley venture capitalist who was an early investor in grocery delivery app Instacart Inc.
“(It’s) very much how we work with our portfolio companies after we close,” she said. “We really see this as a long-term partnership with our entrepreneurs to help them scale their businesses … diversify their product offerings (and) expand geographically.”
Initial investments in target tech companies — which Steedman says share the aim of disrupting a marketplace to solve a particular challenge or problem — will remain between $50 million and $250 million. The plan is to continue the established pattern of follow-on investments if things go well.
Prostko was hired to head up the venture platform’s direct investing business in North America and build a presence in San Francisco, a beachhead that will now be expanded with a permanent office.
“We’ll be building out the team around him,” Steedman said, adding that the venture arm will work closely with other divisions within Teachers’ $241.6-billion pension plan.
“We’ve got this great team, but we also have the total fund behind us, this amazing endowment of global relationships, as well as 100-plus portfolio companies to bring to bear for the benefit of our entrepreneurs,” she said.
The venture platform’s recent investments include leading a 210-million-pound funding round for Lendable Ltd., a consumer finance platform powered by artificial intelligence, and dipping a toe into cryptocurrency by participating in a US$420-million funding round for FTX Trading Ltd., which owns and operates global cryptocurrency exchange FTX.com.
“Part of our mandate is to look at technology that’s shaping future markets, and we believe that digital assets are here to stay,” Steedman said.
“FTX, importantly, is not crypto itself, it’s an exchange,” she added. “We think of it as sort of an infrastructure play for us to enable the broader crypto markets as distinct from investing in a particular digital asset itself, which we haven’t done yet.”
MORE ON THIS TOPIC
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan says Russia exposure minimal, posts solid annual return
Ontario Teachers' leads $353-million funding round in U.K.'s Lendable
Teachers' targets up to 10 per cent of assets for innovation platform by 2026
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board office in Toronto.
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board’s venture platform is planning to double and potentially triple the size of its portfolio over the next five to 10 years.
The target was unveiled Tuesday, less than three years after Teachers’ Innovation Platform made its initial splash by investing in Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX.
To help reach the goal of the venture portfolio accounting for seven to 10 per cent of the Canadian pension giant’s overall net assets, up from three per cent today, its staff will be substantially beefed up over the next year and a new office will be opened in San Francisco.
The platform will also operate under a new name — Teachers’ Venture Growth — to better reflect its focus on late-stage venture and growth equity investments in technology companies.
If Teachers’ reaches its target portfolio size of $300 billion by 2030, the venture platform’s projections put it on target to contribute at least $21 billion, up from $7.1 billion today.
Led by Teachers’ veteran Olivia Steedman, the platform has produced double-digit annual returns since its formation in 2019, and will bulk up over the next year with 12 hires and a new office in San Francisco. That’s in addition to around two dozen people already working from Toronto, London, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Steedman said the anticipated portfolio growth will be generated by a combination of direct investments and investments through funds.
“It’ll be around $2 billion a year that we need to put to work,” she said. “And we will continue to split that as we’ve been doing … Probably a quarter of that will go towards funds, with the balance going towards the direct style of investing.”
The platform led seven of the 10 deals it participated in last year, and Steedman said she is “keen that the market understands that we have that capability.”
She added that Teachers’ Venture Growth is seeking to establish itself as a platform that can go beyond deal execution, given it is backed by seasoned professionals such as Rick Prostko, a veteran Silicon Valley venture capitalist who was an early investor in grocery delivery app Instacart Inc.
“(It’s) very much how we work with our portfolio companies after we close,” she said. “We really see this as a long-term partnership with our entrepreneurs to help them scale their businesses … diversify their product offerings (and) expand geographically.”
Initial investments in target tech companies — which Steedman says share the aim of disrupting a marketplace to solve a particular challenge or problem — will remain between $50 million and $250 million. The plan is to continue the established pattern of follow-on investments if things go well.
Prostko was hired to head up the venture platform’s direct investing business in North America and build a presence in San Francisco, a beachhead that will now be expanded with a permanent office.
“We’ll be building out the team around him,” Steedman said, adding that the venture arm will work closely with other divisions within Teachers’ $241.6-billion pension plan.
“We’ve got this great team, but we also have the total fund behind us, this amazing endowment of global relationships, as well as 100-plus portfolio companies to bring to bear for the benefit of our entrepreneurs,” she said.
The venture platform’s recent investments include leading a 210-million-pound funding round for Lendable Ltd., a consumer finance platform powered by artificial intelligence, and dipping a toe into cryptocurrency by participating in a US$420-million funding round for FTX Trading Ltd., which owns and operates global cryptocurrency exchange FTX.com.
“Part of our mandate is to look at technology that’s shaping future markets, and we believe that digital assets are here to stay,” Steedman said.
“FTX, importantly, is not crypto itself, it’s an exchange,” she added. “We think of it as sort of an infrastructure play for us to enable the broader crypto markets as distinct from investing in a particular digital asset itself, which we haven’t done yet.”
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan says Russia exposure minimal, posts solid annual return
Ontario Teachers' leads $353-million funding round in U.K.'s Lendable
Teachers' targets up to 10 per cent of assets for innovation platform by 2026
No comments:
Post a Comment