Newly hatched defence-technology startup Dominion Dynamics has landed millions of dollars in funding from domestic investors and has attracted big-name advisers such as former Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole to help it build out its cutting-edge system of sensors aimed at defending the Canadian Arctic. The Ottawa-based firm, which closed a $4-million pre-seed funding round […]
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Newly hatched defence-technology startup Dominion Dynamics has landed millions of dollars in funding from domestic investors and has attracted big-name advisers such as former Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole to help it build out its cutting-edge system of sensors aimed at defending the Canadian Arctic.
The Ottawa-based firm, which closed a $4-million pre-seed funding round in August, is testing its hardware and software with the Canadian Rangers, members of the armed forces reserves who patrol remote areas across Canada and are known as the “eyes and ears” of the North.
Dominion Dynamics was founded by Eliot Pence, a general partner at Washington, D.C.-based Tofino Capital who previously spearheaded U.S. defence firm Anduril Industries’ international expansion from 2018 to 2022.
Founded in 2017, Anduril has quickly become a leader of a new wave of “neoprime” defence firms known for rapidly developing and implementing a range of technologies. Pence, a native of Victoria, B.C., is now hoping to duplicate Anduril’s success in his home country with Dominion.
“It kind of became clear to me the gap in the Canadian market was an ambitious, aggressive integrator of Canadian technologies,” Pence says. “That’s really the gap that we’re filling here.”
Since it launched on June 6 – a date chosen because it coincided with the anniversary of D-Day – Dominion has produced a network of sensors that allow Canadian Rangers to transit data from regions that lack communications infrastructure such as cellphone towers.
The firm specializes in small devices similar to Apple AirTags that can be attached to cellphones and cameras. The sensors capture data such as videos and voice notes and send it to armed forces members at nearby bases, where software can then create a 3D map of rangers’ movements in real time.
“Nothing like that exists anywhere in the world,” says Pence. “It’s especially relevant for Canada.”
Dominion trialled the system with Canadian Rangers in Northern Ontario in late September and early October. The firm, which has 10 full-time employees, is soon planning to deploy the technology at the Yukon-based Arctic Training Centre and other harsh northern environments in a bid to convince the Canadian government to purchase its products.
It’s a “different approach to the market,” Pence says, explaining that rather than waiting for the defence establishment to come to it with requests for proposals, Dominion is proactively identifying problems and solving them in the hope that customers will buy in.
“It doesn’t get us involved in long, bureaucratic processes and requirements writing,” Pence explains. “We just want to show things and have the government say, ‘Yeah, we like this or we don’t like this.’ And we’re willing to take that risk. If we wait for an RFP, we’ll die. We’re venture-backed. We have to land and expand rapidly.”
Big-name advisers
The company’s early backers include domestic firms Garage Capital and Golden Ventures as well as a number of Canadian angel investors.
Meanwhile, Dominion has also caught the attention of some heavy-hitting advisers. In addition to O’Toole, who chairs the company’s advisory board, others include former chief of defence staff Wayne Eyre and former CEO of Public Sector Pension Investments Board Neil Cunningham.
“This has to be a Canada-first company that is focused on building with Canadian capital by Canadians for the Canadian market,” Pence says.
O’Toole, who is also a military veteran, says Canada can no longer rely on traditional allies such as the United States to protect vulnerable territories like the Arctic from foreign threats.
The former politician, who was vice-chair of a standing committee that produced a 2019 report on how the federal government could better maintain its Arctic sovereignty, describes the current defence procurement process as “glacial-paced” and says companies like Dominion are poised to reinvent the way defence technology is developed and deployed.
“Solutions that the traditional defence procurement approach in Canada would take 10 years to deliver, we want to deliver in 10 months,” O’Toole says. “We’re moving at what I would call lightning speed, but with a view toward building a lasting and what we hope will be the first neoprime … defence-tech company in Canada.”
With Prime Minister Mark Carney pledging to boost Canada’s defence spending by billions of dollars to meet the country’s NATO commitments, O’Toole says there’s no time to waste.
“We need some of these turnkey solutions, otherwise we’re just not going to meet that (spending target),” he explains. “And we’re not going to be taken seriously in the Arctic. So I think we need to look to the private sector for quick technology solutions.”
Dominion is already looking at developing other products, such as drones that would fly in front of F-35s and other military aircraft to act as early warning systems. That will require millions of dollars in additional funding, but Pence is hoping the feds will jump on board as a potential customer and act as a catalyst for further investment.
“The prime minister has a vision for what this country can be,” he says. “He cannot get there in the absence of having companies like Dominion that are Canadian, backed by Canadians but have world-class expertise. It’s an existential issue for the country.”
If the company can deliver on its early promise, Pence says he expects Dominion’s head count to swell to 500 employees over the next few years as the company adds new products and customers around the world.
“We have a pretty ambitious growth plan,” he says. “A lot of this is predicated on whether we can get contracts from the government, but we want to grow this company as fast as possible. I’m mostly an impatient person, but impatience is also our moat.”
