One of the few private independents to enjoy unbroken pension supply since the 1980s has been Montreal-based Miralta Capital. Unlike most venture capital institutions, it utilizes a corporate structure (as opposed to a limited partnership) to syndicate the assets of institutional investors, a practice that was more prevalent in the 1970s. Incorporated in 1992 and with current assets totaling over $90 million, Miralta is itself the successor to the original Altamira Capital (incorporated in 1984 and possessing assets of over $160 million), and was complemented in 1998 by the approximately $40 million Almasa Capital. The constant over this history has been the management team Altacap Investors.^{Endnote 48}

Like Ventures West, Miralta and Almasa focus on venture financing in high technology industries, including communications, computer products, electronics, industrial automation and specialized manufacturing. Transaction sizes of between $3-5 million are preferred. In general, the portfolios of Miralta, et al, feature a small number of investment projects and significant minority or controlling equity stakes to permit active growth management that yields returns. In each instance, underlying corporate value progresses with the portfolio (and market cycles) and wind-up begins once investee firms have fully matured and either go public or are acquired. Miralta and affiliated corporate entities have over time relied on a group of diverse shareholders, a substantial number of which have been private and public sector pension funds.

The local dimension

By nature, supply and demand in the venture capital market tends to interact within close geographic proximity. As a consequence, such investment activity and any realized economic benefits, such as improvements to the quantity and quality of jobs, are typically local in orientation. This is one of the reasons why venture financing has received heightened interest across Canada as a critical tool for community and regional economic development and diversification.

Historically, Canadian venture capital stock and disbursements have been very centralized. In fact, prior to the mid-1990s, only two in ten institutions resided in sub-markets outside of central Canada.^{Endnote 49} Where pension involvement exists, it has frequently helped to redistribute overall supply trends in the direction of growth-oriented SMEs in the regions. A recent illustration is seen in British Columbia where public sector pension funds have contributed substantially to expansion in the size and range of activity of the provincial venture capital market in recent years. Indeed, committing 37 percent of total new capital, these funds were the top source of supply in 1997.^{Endnote 50}

Of course, the impact of British Columbia pension funds, through the OCIO, on provincial venture investment has its antecedent in Quebec. For many years, Quebec SMEs have captured the largest number of disbursements due to proportionately greater capital resources than most other provinces. Contributing approximately one-quarter of new capital commitments in 1997, the Caisse de dépôt has been key to this outcome. A further step was taken by the Caisse in recent years to distribute venture-backed projects to a broader range of Quebec locales, an initiative that is described in detail under Pension Assets at the Grassroots.^{Endnote 51}

The experience of the Caisse in Quebec is similar to that of their public sector counterparts in an increasingly large number of American states. While pension funds in that country have not been shy about entering in the venture capital market, as discussed in Risk-taking in America, historic participation has tended to favour the largest state economies with the most sophisticated and best-resourced sub-markets. In 1997, over one in every three such dollars was invested in California, followed by Massachusetts and Texas.^{Endnote 52} California's overwhelming share is only partially due to the efforts of CalPERS to locate at least half of its allocations to alternative/non- traditional assets, including venture and non-venture equity to its home state.

According to a 1995 research report prepared for the federal Small Business Administration, the advent of pension-sponsored economically-targeted investments (ETIs) (see What's an ETI?) or equivalent programs where attributable economic effects are real, but more incidental, have helped to alter this large state bias. Results of a survey showed that individual programs had facilitated venture investment in SMEs in twenty-one out of twenty-nine states.