Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund

The Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund (OETF or the Fund) is a direct investment fund established by the Province of Ontario in 2009. The Government has announced that the OETF will be a $250 million fund over five years, to a maximum of $50 million per year for each of the 5 years, to co-invest alongside Qualified Investors into innovative, high-growth, private, Ontario companies.

The Fund is managed by the Ontario Capital Growth Corporation (OCGC), an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. OCGC has retained the services of Covington Capital Corporation and Northwater Capital Management Inc. to evaluate applications in relation to OETF.

Covington Capital Corporation will also provide ongoing administration and monitoring of co-investments under the Fund. All OETF-related decisions will be made by OCGC and all inquiries regarding the OETF should be directed to OCGC.

The OETF is designed to respond to the challenges faced in raising capital by innovative, private, Ontario-based companies in the clean technology, life sciences and advanced health technologies, and digital media and information and communications technology sectors.

The OETF is intended to increase the amount of investment made directly into Ontario-based companies in solely the sectors noted above, and to become self-sustaining by allowing it to reinvest any returns from its investments.

It is a discretionary, non-entitlement investment fund. Notwithstanding the satisfaction of all criteria, OCGC may exercise its discretion not to approve any particular application for Qualified Investor or Eligible Investment. In undertaking review of applications, OCGC at its discretion, will retain third party expertise as applicable.

The Fund model is based on a number of design principles that are consistent with achieving the government’s goal and objectives for the Fund:

  • Market-based investment decisions – identification of investment opportunities will be undertaken by qualified investors that have a proven track record of success and have been pre-qualified by Ontario
  • Rapid deployment of capital – the Fund will have the ability to make investments directly into companies within a short time frame
  • Focus on key industry sectors for Ontario – the Fund will focus its investments on sectors of strategic importance to the province
  • Government’s role as a catalyst – Ontario will act as a catalyst to leverage private sector capital.
  • Ability to make additional investments into an investee company – the Fund will be able to make both initial and follow-on investments to support the ongoing growth of high potential, innovative companies.

Further details regarding the OETF can be found in the Fund Guidelines document located below.

The following documents contain additional information