The federal government has revealed a pair of new Canadian defence technology investments.
The feds have allocated up to nearly $7 million CAD in non-repayable funding to Toronto’s Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) to support the delivery of its new defence accelerator and a more than $8-million repayable contribution (or zero-interest loan) to help Aurora-based defence supplier Wolf Advanced Technology bolster its in-house production, inspection, and validation capabilities.
CDL Defence supports startups with dual-use tech that directly addresses defence, national security, and critical infrastructure requirements.
The $15-million in commitments will be delivered through FedDev Ontario as part of the $358-million Regional Defence Investment Initiative (RDII), which supports Canada’s new strategy for shoring up its domestic defence industrial base and reducing the country’s dependence on the US. They mark the first two Ontario investments via the RDII.
Minister of AI and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon announced the news yesterday from CDL’s headquarters at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Solomon described investing in CDL Defence as “a no-brainer,” describing the organization as “the best of the best.”
Solomon said on stage that CDL Defence “will give entrepreneurs access to mentorship, technical expertise, and connections with potential buyers and partners, and will help founders turn promising ideas into real-life solutions to support [Canada’s] defence needs.”
CDL’s global CDL Defence accelerator stream aims to support startups with dual-use technology that directly addresses defence, national security, and critical infrastructure requirements. Through the initiative, which was announced last fall, CDL aims to support up to 25 defence companies annually.
Sonia Sennik, CDL’s CEO, said on stage that the program hopes to help participating firms build teams, fundraise, secure contracts, and integrate into national and global supply chains.
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CDL Defence is currently being run in partnership with six of its locations across Canada and Europe: Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Halifax, Berlin, and Estonia. Each will contribute mentors and local networks and expertise, with in-person sessions timed to coincide with major international security forums.
The free program is designed to support “the best science-based ventures building dual-use technologies, regardless of where they were founded.” Its inaugural cohort, which is now underway, includes startups from Canada, France, Germany, and Finland that are developing autonomous systems, space infrastructure, energy resilience, and advanced sensing technologies for commercial markets and defence applications.
“To attract the best mentors, operators, and domain experts in the world to engage deeply with Canadian companies, we need to convene the strongest ventures globally … When top-tier global ventures participate, it raises the level of conversation, attracts international expertise, and ensures Canadian founders are learning alongside—and competing with—the very best,” a CDL spokesperson told BetaKit.
Aurora-based Wolf, which was founded in 1999, develops rugged, high-performance embedded computing systems for aerospace and defence companies globally. Wolf plans to use this funding to help deliver sovereign defence components.
Solomon said Wolf is “going to build advanced production capabilities in-house, right here in Canada, with the IP here in Canada, to inspect and validate mission-critical electronic and mechanical systems” with “defence-grade reliability.”
Feature image courtesy Creative Destruction Lab.