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Author of the article:<\/p>\n
Kevin Carmichael<\/span> <\/div>\n\n
Publishing date:<\/p>\n
Feb 12, 2021<\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 7\u00a0hours ago<\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 5 minute read<\/span> <\/div><\/div>\n<\/picture>A pedestrian walks past the Telus Harbour building in Toronto.<\/span> Photo by Brent Lewin\/Bloomberg files<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/header>\n\nArticle content<\/h2>\n Telus Corp.\u2019s venture arm invested in a tiny company in 2017 that was working on software to enable virtual doctor-patient consultations. Two years later, Telus chief executive Darren Entwistle bought that disruptive upstart outright, and Toronto-based Akira Health became Akira by Telus Health, one offering among many at a corporation that generates annual revenue of about $15 billion.<\/p>\n
Before you shrug at what looks like a classic big-fish-eats-little-fish story, take a closer look at the big fish.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s from a species known for getting fat on monopoly rents, not risking its ability to return money to shareholders and managers by making bets on non-core businesses. Startup investing is way too risky of most of Canada\u2019s blue bloods. Telus is one of 13 corporations that have venture divisions, according to the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, and just six of those are non-financial companies.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n
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This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n\nArticle content<\/h2>\n Telus, of course, is also a member of a telecommunications oligopoly: a trio beloved by dividend investors, disliked by customers who know how much cheaper mobile data is almost everywhere else on the planet, and loathed by rural Canadians who have been cut off from modern society because of chronic underinvestment in broadband outside urban areas.<\/p>\n
BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. appear to care little about how they\u2019re perceived by anyone other than their largest shareholders. Telus appears to be more sensitive. It wants to be seen as something greater than a \u201ctelephone company,\u201d which it demonstrated most recently in November by launching the Telus Pollinator Fund for Good, seeding it with $100 million to invest in startups that propose innovative ways to deliver health care, make agriculture more efficient, reverse climate change and improve social cohesion.<\/p>\n
\nWe believe we\u2019re world leaders in social capitalism<\/p>\n
Jill Schnarr, chief social innovation officer, Telus<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u201cWe believe we\u2019re world leaders in social capitalism,\u201d said Jill Schnarr, chief social innovation officer and one of a handful of company leaders that Telus made available to discuss its strategy. Entwistle, who declined to be interviewed, \u201csaw the other telcos investing in content and decided that we weren\u2019t going to do that,\u201d she said. \u201cWe would invest in more of a social challenge and leverage our technology and productivity to address a social challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was about a decade ago \u2014 around the same time BCE diversified by purchasing the CTV television network (2010) and Rogers sought to maximize its networks by securing the rights to Hockey Night in Canada (2013) \u2014 that Entwistle, who took over as Telus CEO in 2000, spent about $3 billion to build a health-care business that could manage digital medical records and connect doctors and patients over the internet.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n