The Power of Private Markets in Driving Innovation

Claiming Canada’s place on the global stage Hopper is the fastest growing travel app in the world, ahead of Expedia and booking.com, and has even surpassed Airbnb as the market share leader for active users. OMERS Ventures is one of Canada’s most successful venture capital firms with around $2B in assets and a global portfolio of more than 60 early-stage tech startups. Join Damien Steel, Global Head of Ventures and Managing Partner at OMERS Ventures, in conversation with Fred Lalonde, Hopper’s Co-founder and CEO. The two will discuss how venture investing has changed over the last decade (when OMERS Ventures was one of Hopper’s earliest backers), to how Hopper survived the travel industry meltdown brought on by the pandemic and has reinvented itself as a financial services company. The two will also cover the outlook for VC-backed businesses given the current economic climate.