TELUS

Telus Ventures sources through a combination of direct outreach by its in-house investment team, partnerships with Canadian and Israeli accelerators, and inbound referrals from the Telus Health and Telus Agriculture business units. The firm's corporate development team fields roughly 500 pitches annually, according to a 2023 corporate presentation, with an emphasis on startups that can pilot within Telus's existing customer base in healthcare, agriculture, or field-service management.

Telus Health is a wholly owned division that combines acquired healthcare IT companies, virtual care platforms, and electronic medical record systems serving over 70 million patients globally. It functions as both a business unit and a primary deployment channel for Telus Ventures portfolio companies, which can integrate their software directly into Telus Health's physician-facing or patient-facing platforms. The division accounted for roughly 11% of TELUS total revenue as of year-end 2024.

TELUS primarily executes direct equity investments and corporate venture co-investments. The firm has occasionally participated as a limited partner in specialized ag-tech funds, including Finistere Ventures, where it acted as an anchor LP in the firm's Canada-focused agri-food technology vehicle. The majority of its deployment, however, is balance-sheet direct investing.

Investment decisions at Telus Ventures are led by the Managing Partner of Telus Ventures, a role historically held by Rich Osborn, who has directed venture strategy since the unit's 2001 founding. The investment committee includes the TELUS Chief Strategy Officer and senior leaders from Telus Health and Telus Agriculture, ensuring commercial alignment with the parent company's operating divisions.

Telus Ventures does not invest in consumer social media, gaming, or advertising-technology platforms, and its mandate explicitly excludes hardware-dependent deep-tech ventures that lack a clear software-as-a-service distribution model. The firm also avoids pure-play fintech unless the application directly serves healthcare payments or agricultural supply-chain finance.

Telus Ventures is not a separate legal entity but rather a division within TELUS Corporation that draws its capital from the corporate treasury. It reports through the Chief Strategy Officer rather than through the CFO or a traditional limited-partner structure. This means its portfolio valuations are consolidated into TELUS's public financials but not broken out as a separate segment.

TELUS welcomes co-investors alongside its venture bets, particularly growth-stage rounds where it acts as a strategic rather than lead investor. The firm has co-invested alongside institutional venture firms including Andreessen Horowitz and Georgian Partners, according to pitchbook records, and frequently participates in syndicates led by Canadian venture funds with overlapping healthcare or agriculture mandates.