Dominion Dynamics secures CA$139M for Arctic defence tech

Canada has just recorded the largest Series A round in its defence history, and the funding is aimed squarely at autonomous drones and the software needed to wage a modern war in the Arctic.

Dominion Dynamics, an Ottawa-based defence technology company, has raised CA$139 million ($100 million) in a Series A round, the largest of its kind in Canadian defence history, the company confirmed. The round was led by Georgian, Canada’s largest independent venture firm. Since its launch in June 2025, Dominion has now raised a total of CA$169 million.

The investor lineup reads like a who’s who of allied defence capital. It includes Valor Equity Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners in the United States, Lakestar and Expeditions in Europe, and Canadian heavyweights such as OMERS, RBC, and BDC, according to the announcement. The pitch that drew them in is straightforward: autonomy is about to transform how NATO defends itself, and the Arctic presents the most difficult version of that challenge.

Software for a war in the cold

Dominion’s flagship product is AuraNet, a software platform that connects scattered sensors, communications, and personnel into a single operational picture. The company describes it as an operating system for command and control.

Earlier this year, the Canadian Armed Forces put AuraNet to the test. During Operation Nanook-Nunalivut, Canadian Rangers used the platform alongside Dominion’s Arctic-hardened sensors across the High Arctic. The exercise ran for two months. Dominion funded the deployment itself, then integrated the lessons learned directly into the product.

The Arctic is a punishing environment. Distances are enormous, infrastructure is sparse or nonexistent, and the cold destroys equipment built for milder climates. “Starting in the Arctic means starting with the hardest problem set on Earth,” said Eliot Pence, Dominion’s founder and chief executive. His bet is that technology proven there will work anywhere.

Drones that fly with fighters

The company’s second product is Scout, which Dominion calls an Autonomous Collaborative Platform. The concept is a Canadian-built drone that flies alongside crewed fighter jets, extending their reach into remote areas. Over the past six months, Scout has moved from concept into simulation and systems development. The new funding will accelerate testing and help hire the engineers needed to complete it.

That places Dominion in a fast-moving field. European peers such as ARX Robotics and Alta Ares are racing to field autonomous systems, while Comand AI sells command software to militaries. The common thread is machines that act with less human input, backed by software that keeps a person in charge.

Canada tries to rebuild

The raise arrives at a turning point for Canadian defence. Ottawa has met NATO’s 2 per cent spending benchmark and signed on to the alliance’s new 5 per cent target by 2035. It has published its first Defence Industrial Strategy and established a Defence Investment Agency. The government has also pledged to steer 70 per cent of defence spending to Canadian firms, boost defence research by 85 per cent, and create 125,000 jobs.

Pence frames the company as a national project. “Canada once built technology the rest of the world wanted, then convinced itself that was someone else’s role,” he said. “We started Dominion to show the capability never left.” The team he is building reflects that argument. Dominion has hired from Anduril, Tesla, Rheinmetall, Google, and Rivian, alongside veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces.

The growth is physical too. In June, the company moved into a 25,000-square-foot manufacturing site in Kanata, Ontario, and opened a development office in Toronto. It plans to exceed 100 staff by the end of the year. It also intends to open additional offices in British Columbia, Quebec, and Nova Scotia.

A crowded, cash-rich moment

Defence tech is awash with money right now. In Europe, Germany alone has absorbed most of the region’s record defence funding, and Stark Defence reached a valuation above €3.5 billion within two years of launching. Dominion’s Series A is smaller than those mega-rounds. Its claim is different. It wants to own the Arctic, a region every NATO member cares about and few can operate in.

Whether a two-year-old company can build both the drones and the software to back that claim is the open question. The money now says a lot of serious investors think it can. Pence, for his part, is not hedging. “We don’t intend to follow the current or take the easy way,” he wrote. “We intend to shoot the rapids.”