This week, we are speaking to another company profiled in our 2026 BetaKit Most Ambitious issue, which tells stories of Canadian innovators strengthening our security, autonomy, and prosperity.
The autonomy and prosperity components are obvious to any Canadian paying close attention to the state of our sovereignty in the last year. But defence and defence tech are relatively new concerns.
“The Arctic is the hardest operational environment on Earth for anybody. For any country.”
BetaKit didn’t really have a defence tech beat before 2025; this year, defence was the first section in our Most Ambitious issue. The company we featured in that section was Dominion Dynamics, which just announced right before Canada Day that it had raised one of the largest Series A defence-tech rounds in Canadian history, from investors across NATO.
Just before that round was announced, I sat down with Dominion founder and CEO Eliot Pence about:
- The capabilities Canada is lacking that Dominion is trying to build or buy as the nation’s defence general contractor
- Why Dominion is focused on the Arctic to start
- What Pence learned working for Palmer Luckey (yes, that Palmer Luckey) at US defence neoprime Anduril
- The roadblocks defence companies currently face in Canada, like procurement and even being debanked (which Pence says has happened to Dominion)
- And the life experiences that led this expat who has lived and worked across North America and Africa to return home
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RSS
Eliot Pence told me he launched Dominion Dynamics because he both loves Canada and wants to change Canada. So what is he trying to build?
Let’s dig in.
PRESENTED BY
The BetaKit Podcast is presented by BetaKit Most Ambitious.
Amid global uncertainty, the path forward is clear: Canada’s moment to build is now.
Presented by Uber Canada, DMZ, and National Bank of Canada, BetaKit Most Ambitious is back, telling stories of nearly 100 Canadian innovators strengthening our nation’s autonomy, security, and prosperity.
Read BetaKit Most Ambitious now.
Recorded and edited by Toronto Podcasts.