ABP and Omers, two of the world's biggest pension funds, have joined forces to launch a new €200m ($246m) investment vehicle for start-up companies in the Netherlands and Canada - a move that will be seen as a vote of confidence in venture capital after poor returns in recent years.

ABP, the €200bn Dutch civil servants' pension scheme, and Omers, a C$47bn fund that manages the savings of city employees in the Canadian province of Ontario, have formed INKEF Capital in order to "invest in the knowledge economy of the future", they said in a joint statement yesterday.