Dominion Dynamics builds sensor networks and autonomous systems for the Canadian Arctic, and it is betting that this harsh environment can become the testing ground for its next generation of military technology. The company was founded by Eliot Pence, a Canadian-born former Anduril executive. Since launching, Dominion has focused on a region most defence startups avoid. The High Arctic brings extreme cold, vast distances, and little existing infrastructure, conditions that make most commercial technology unreliable.
This timing is not a coincidence. It reflects a wider shift in how Canada approaches national defence. After years of underspending, Canada reached NATO's target of spending 2% of GDP on defence in the 2025-26 fiscal year, putting more than $44 billion USD into defence-related programs. Along with that increase, the government has pushed to build up domestic defence capacity instead of relying mainly on foreign suppliers. That shift has opened the door for Canadian companies like Dominion to compete for work once dominated by established international contractors.
Dominion announced a $100 million USD Series A financing round led by the Toronto-based venture capital firm Georgian. The round also included Valor Equity Partners, Expeditions, Lakestar, OMERS, the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Deloitte Ventures Canada, and JDY Capital, along with existing investors British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), Bessemer Venture Partners, Garage Capital, Golden Ventures, and Silent Ventures. According to the company, this is the largest Series A round in Canadian defence history. It brings Dominion's total funding to approximately $122 million USD since it launched in June 2025.
Canada's higher defence spending is not only about hitting an alliance target. The government has also committed, along with its NATO allies, to reach a new goal of 5% of GDP by 2035, split between core defence spending and broader security investments. Earlier this year, Ottawa released its first Defence Industrial Strategy and set up a new Defence Investment Agency to manage this expansion. The strategy points toward future contracts favoring companies built for this specific moment.
That plan includes direct support for Canadian suppliers. Ottawa wants 70% of defence spending to go to Canadian firms. It also aims to raise defence research and development funding by 85%, increase defence exports by 50%, and create 125,000 new jobs in the sector. For a company like Dominion, which has built its strategy around Canadian-made technology, this policy environment offers both funding opportunities and a government more likely to buy what it sells.
There is also a security dimension behind this push. Canadian officials have grown more cautious about depending on the United States for military technology and Arctic protection, and that concern has shaped recent conversations about defence procurement. Dominion has positioned itself to benefit from this shift. The company had already run field trials with the Canadian Armed Forces before this funding round closed, giving it an early foothold that most young defence companies do not have.
The new money will help Dominion expand two main programs. The first is AuraNet, a software platform for monitoring and coordinating operations in remote areas. The second is Scout, an Autonomous Collaborative Platform built to extend the range of crewed fighter jets into difficult terrain. Earlier this year, the Canadian Armed Forces used AuraNet during Operation Nanook-Nunalivut, a two-month exercise across the High Arctic. Canadian Rangers paired the platform with Dominion's ruggedized sensors to turn scattered communications and data into one shared picture for mission tracking and planning. Dominion funded the exercise itself. The company says this reflects its approach of testing technology directly with the people who will use it.
The funding will also support hiring. Dominion wants to grow its team past 100 employees by the end of the year. So far it has recruited engineers from companies including Anduril, Tesla, Rheinmetall, Google, and Rivian, along with veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces. To support that growth, the company moved into a 25,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Kanata, Ontario, in June and opened a new development office in Toronto.
"Starting in the Arctic means starting with the hardest problem set on Earth," said Pence. "The engineers joining Dominion understand that technology proven in the world's toughest environment can succeed anywhere."
At its core, Dominion designs sensor networks and autonomous systems made for extreme environments, starting with Canada's Arctic. In plain terms, the company builds hardware and software that can detect activity across land, sea, air, and space, then bring that information together into one view that military operators can use to plan and respond. Its AuraNet platform is built to work even in places with very little existing infrastructure, linking scattered sensors and communications into a single coordinated system.
Eliot Pence founded the company in June 2025 after returning to Canada from a role as an executive at Anduril, a U.S. defence technology company. He has described Dominion's mission as reviving Canada's history of building advanced technology at home, rather than depending on other countries for it.
"Canada once built technology the rest of the world wanted, then convinced itself that was someone else's role. We started Dominion to show the capability never left, and this round lets us build at the scale and speed the moment demands." — Eliot Pence, Founder and CEO of Dominion Dynamics
According to the company, what sets Dominion apart is its team and its approach to testing. Its engineers come from a mix of major technology and defence companies, alongside veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces. Dominion describes this as pairing fast-moving tech industry habits with strong engineering training from Waterloo. The company has also emphasized testing its technology directly in the field with military operators rather than building products in isolation first.
Georgian, the Toronto-based venture capital firm that also led Dominion's earlier seed round, led this Series A as well. The round brought together a wide mix of backers: U.S. firm Valor Equity Partners, European investors Expeditions and Lakestar, and several Canadian institutions, including pension manager OMERS, the Business Development Bank of Canada, the Royal Bank of Canada, and Deloitte Ventures Canada. Existing investors BCI, Bessemer Venture Partners, Garage Capital, Golden Ventures, and Silent Ventures also returned.
This marks Dominion's second funding round since it launched a little over a year ago. Georgian first led the company's $15.2 million USD seed round in January 2026, which also included BCI and Bessemer Venture Partners.
