Brian Kobus
Managing Partner at OMERS Ventures
Brian Kobus
Managing Partner at OMERS Ventures
Toronto, Ontario
Overview
Work Experience
Managing Partner & Head of Fund Operations
2015 - Current
OMERS Ventures is a North American, early-stage tech investor focused on helping our portfolio company founders succeed so their businesses profit and real people prosper. We have offices in Toronto, Palo Alto and New York, investing in technology companies in North America. Over my tenure at OMERS Ventures, I have spent time focused on investing as well as several different aspects of the firm, including managing OMERS Ventures platform team, fund operations and LP relationship management. My investment management experience at OMERS Ventures includes: Exited investments - D2L (Board Observer) – completed an IPO on the TSX in November 2021 - Embark (Investor) – began trading on the NASDAQ via a SPAC transaction in November 2021 - Leadsift (Board Member) – acquired by IDG Group in December 2021 - Manifold (Board Member) – acquired by Snyk in January 2021 - Nudge (Board Member) – acquired by Affinity in March 2020 Current portfolio companies - Jobber (Board Member) - Ranovus (Board Member) - Smile (Board Member) - Acerta (Board Member) - Alida (Board Member) - DuckDuckGo (Board Observer) - Hootsuite (Board Observer) - Vidyard (Board Observer) - Contentful (Investor) - Busbud (Investor) - Waabi (Investor)
Vice President, Corporate Development
2014 - 2015
ScribbleLive is the leading content marketing software platform that helps businesses grow and expand the top of the marketing funnel using big data. The all-in-one SaaS solution combines predictive analytics with content planning, creation, and distribution technologies to deliver optimized business results. In my role as Vice President, Technology Alliances, I was responsible for establishing and managing partnerships and/or integrations with partners including Facebook, Google, Twitter, LexisNexis, Marketo and Hootsuite.
Principal
2006 - 2014
Summerhill Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm which invests in the areas of Digital Media, Wireless and Software & Services. My portfolio company investment management experience included: - Intellon (Board Observer) – completed an IPO on NASDAQ in December 2007 - Radian6 (Board Observer) – acquired by Saleforce.com in March 2011 - Sonian (Board Observer) – acquired by Barracuda Networks in November 2017 - ScribbleLive (Board Observer) – acquired by Rock Content in December 2019
Associate Director, Mergers & Acquisitions
2002 - 2006
Bell is Canada's largest communications company, providing a comprehensive and innovative suite of broadband communication services to residential and business customers in Canada.
Investment Banking Analyst
2000 - 2002
Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services.
Education
MBA
2005 - 2006
Certified Financial Analyst
2002 - 2004
BA
1996 - 2000
HBA
1996 - 2000