Photographer: Peter Power
Photographer: Peter Power
Six months after he was hit by a cycling accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down, tech investor John Ruffolo is launching a $ 500 million private equity fund to help Canadian companies.
Ruffolo’s firm, Maverix Private Equity, will target growth-stage companies that want to remain private while expanding globally, he said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg Television’s Jon Erlichman.
The fund’s launch was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic and then even further by his accident in September. Ruffolo was hit by a transport truck while riding his bicycle in the suburb of Markham in Toronto, Ontario.
‘I crushed my spine. I split my pelvis in two. I broke every rib in multiple places. I lost a kidney, a lung and a lot of blood, ”said Ruffolo, who founded the venture capital division of Retirement Plan for Ontario Municipal Employees. “I stubbornly didn’t die.”
“When I first arrived at Sunnybrook Hospital, they didn’t want to operate on me because they were concerned that surgery would kill me because of the tremendous trauma,” he said.
In late October, still in a recovery bed at a Toronto rehabilitation hospital, Ruffolo felt well enough to talk to Maverix’s potential investors again. The fund plans to seek out companies that are disrupting industries such as retail, healthcare, transportation and financial services; investors include Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Bank of Montreal, Mattamy Asset Management and pension funds.
“We wanted to build this Team Canada concept, where we gather the best individuals in this country who will come around us and help new entrants,” said Ruffolo.
In addition to being one of Canada’s most influential venture capitalists, Ruffolo has championed the country’s technology industry as a co-founder of the Council of Canadian Innovators, along with former Research in Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie.