Photographer: Peter Power
Photographer: Peter Power
Six months after being hit in a bicycle accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down, technology investor John Ruffolo launches a $ 500 million private equity fund to help Canadian businesses.
In an interview with BNN Bloomberg Television’s Jon Erlichman, he said Ruffolo’s firm, Maverix Private Equity, will target growing companies that want to stay private as they expand globally.
The launch of the fund was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic and then by the September crash. Ruffolo was hit by a transport truck while riding a bicycle in the suburbs of Markham, Ontario, Toronto.
“I broke my spine. I split my pelvis in half. I broke all the ribs in several places. I lost a kidney, a lung and a lot of blood, “said Ruffolo, who founded the venture capital arm of Ontario Municipal Employee Retirement System. “I didn’t die stubbornly.”
“When I first came to Sunnybrook Hospital, they didn’t want to operate on me because there was concern that the surgery would kill me because of a massive trauma,” he said.
In late October, still in a recovery bed at a Toronto rehab hospital, Ruffolo was well enough to start talking again to potential Maverix investors. The fund plans to look for companies that are disrupting sectors such as retail, healthcare, transportation and financial services; investors include the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the Bank of Montreal, Mattamy Asset Management and pension funds.
“We wanted to build this concept of Team Canada, where we bring together the greatest people in this country who will come together around us and help future people,” Ruffolo said.
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 Canadian Council of Innovators, along with former CEO of Research in Motion Jim Balsillie.