Canadian Pension Fund's Venture Arm Exploring Bitcoin Investments

The venture arm of a major Canadian pension fund is reportedly looking at making investments in bitcoin and blockchain startups.

The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, or OMERS, is one of Canada's largest municipal pension funds. The fund's venture arm, OMERS Ventures, recently disclosed in a recent interview with Canadian business publication TechVibes that it was exploring the use of proceeds from a recently closed $260m CAD fund to make investments in the bitcoin space.

The fund has also drawn support from the Bank of Montreal and Cisco Investments.

Managing director Jim Orlando said during the interview:

"Cybersecurity is another area we have been looking at, specifically in FinTech as Sid mentioned, and in particular what bitcoin and block chain capability bring in terms of differentiated opportunities. We hope to find a couple of investments for Fund II related to bitcoin and the block chain, and the security side of that whole paradigm."

OMERS Ventures indicated earlier this week on its website that it would place a heavy emphasis on financial tech companies, including those in the bitcoin space. An infographic published by the firm included a number of bitcoin startups based in Canada.

Ontario image via Shutterstock

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