Five months ago, we led Dominion Dynamics' $21M CAD seed round, our first Pathfinder investment in defense technology. For Georgian, Pathfinder investments are intentional, earlier-stage bets on emerging markets, designed to build conviction in sectors we believe pose a significant long-term opportunity. In Dominion's case, it gave us early access to a new defense technology ecosystem as it began to take shape.
Georgian recently led Dominion Dynamics' $139M CAD Series A ($100M USD) out of Georgian Growth Fund VI. We were joined in this round by Valor Equity Partners, Expeditions, Lakestar, OMERS, Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Deloitte Ventures (Canada), JDY Capital and numerous existing investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI). Dominion has now raised $169M CAD since launching in June 2025.
Our decision to double down is grounded in what the company has accomplished since our initial check:
- Took AuraNet from idea to deployment, as Dominion Dynamics deployed its network of rugged sensors and autonomous systems into Operation Nanook-Nunalivut alongside the Canadian Armed Forces, covering ~5,200 km of the Northwest Passage in Canada’s largest annual Arctic sovereignty exercise.
- Raised the bar on talent and tripled headcount by drawing engineers from leading technology and defense companies in the US and Canada, the company was able to open a 25,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in Ottawa with a goal of employing 100 people by the end of 2026.
- Embedded with partners, as CEO Eliot Pence was appointed to the Canadian government's new Advisory Committee on Canada-U.S. Economic Relations, a body of roughly two dozen of Canada's most senior business and labour leaders.
- Initial Commitment of $50M CAD to build Canada's first Autonomous Collaborative Platform (ACP), an uncrewed aircraft designed to operate alongside crewed fighters in contested and remote environments.
Together, these milestones reflect a pace of execution that is, in our experience, uncommon and mature for a company of Dominion’s size and tenure.
The Market Opportunity Has Strengthened
At the time of our initial investment, we identified three market tailwinds: The emergence of “neoprime” defense technology companies building faster and more cost-effectively than legacy primes; sustained increases in Canadian and global defense spending; and the strategic vulnerability of Canada’s Arctic. We have observed each of those conditions strengthen since:
- Increased Defense Funding: Canada reached the NATO 2% of GDP defense spending target in FY2025-26, representing roughly $63B CAD and the largest year-over-year increase to Canada’s defense spending in generations, with a new defense Investment Pledge targeting 5% of annual GDP by 2035.
- A Shift Toward Canadian Suppliers: The defense Industrial Strategy, published in February 2026, targets 70% of defense contracts flowing to Canadian companies, up from approximately 43% today. In our view, this represents a structural and cultural shift in procurement intent.
- Procurement Reform and New Acquisition Pathways: The Government of Canada launched the defense Investment Agency (DIA), to centralize defense procurement, with new pathways designed to help the defense industry to scale efficiently, expedite procurement timelines, prioritize capability gaps including autonomy and Arctic sovereignty, and enable sole-source contracts.
- Globally, the neoprime model has produced compelling venture outcomes: Companies like Anduril, Helsing and Saronic have each reportedly reached multi-billion dollar valuations within five to seven years of founding. In our view, the conditions are now in place for a Canadian equivalent and Dominion’s combination of access, technical scope and pace position it to potentially fill that role.
Why We Are Investing Again
When we first invested in Dominion, three things stood out: the founder, the technology and the market opportunity. What we have seen in the five months since has reinforced all three factors for Georgian.
1. A founder and CEO running a proven playbook
In our view, CEO and Founder Eliot Pence, brings a rare combination to Dominion: deep operational experience, commitment to mission and what we described at the time of our initial investment as an ability to execute on an optimistic vision while remaining deeply pragmatic. Eliot joined Anduril early and was Head of International, helping build the neoprime model that modernized defense capabilities for nations worldwide. We believe he is now applying that same playbook to Dominion in a market that has not previously had a venture-scale, defense-native company. This is a playbook shaped by demonstrating technical capability directly to operators before pursuing contracts, earning trust incrementally and structuring the business so the software layer is the durable source of value.
Pence has described Dominion's strategy as: “Build things that matter, that we know the CAF needs, deploy them as soon as possible with them, get their feedback and then re-engineer the products to fit that feedback.” The Operation NANOOK deployment was an example of this strategy in action.
2. A software platform with hardware as the entry point
At the core of Dominion's business is AuraNet, a persistent Arctic sensing platform that combines proprietary hardware and software into a single integrated system. Dominion deploys its own sensor hardware across land, sea, air and space, then fuses that data through a software layer into a unified operating picture for field commanders to monitor remote regions in the Arctic. We believe this full-stack model is the key to Dominion’s business: the hardware gets Dominion into the field and embedded into critical infrastructure, while the software, and the intelligence it produces, is what drives lasting government contracts and long-term retention.
As a second line of business, Dominion has recently made an initial commitment of $50M CAD to fund an Autonomous Collaborative Platforms (ACP) program. The ACP program aims to help Canada build an uncrewed aircraft designed to operate alongside crewed fighters and extend sensing capabilities into high-risk, remote environments, including the Arctic. Dominion aims to demonstrate a sub-scale prototype within ~24-36 months, leveraging advances in simulation engines, options/analysis, existing data and materials testing. In our view, this is a well-timed opportunity for the company to expand its capabilities and address a gap that allied militaries are already filling and the Canadian government has explicitly acknowledged.
3. A gap in Canada’s Industrial Base and the political will to close it
Canada is one of the only major Western nations without a domestic defense prime. Approximately 57 cents of every Canadian defense procurement dollar currently flows to foreign vendors, and the defense Industrial Strategy has made closing that gap government policy by committing $81.8B to help fund defense-related research and development. In our view, Dominion's technical scope, access and ambition to become Canada's sovereign defense prime is an answer to what the government has identified and funded.
What's Next
We believe the past year has been a compelling proof of concept. The Dominion Dynamics team has multiplied, AuraNet has moved from idea to being in the hands of operators, and the company has continued to build meaningful relationships across Canada's defense and policy ecosystem.
This financing is intended to help advance the development and deployment of Dominion’s technology, with a primary focus on scaling its Arctic surveillance network and drone systems. We believe Dominion is on a path to building something generationally important for Canada, and are proud to partner on the opportunity ahead.