Twenty Canadian companies have been selected for the latest, and largest-ever, cohort of NATO’s defence tech accelerator program.
NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) program connects companies with military end-users, mentors, and investors in the alliance to help develop and validate the innovations. It also helps NATO tackle its own operational challenges and stay connected to advances in defence technology.
James Appathurai,
“DIANA’s mission is to find the most innovative companies, help them advance their solutions… and get the technologies we need into the hands of NATO operators.”
NATO DIANA
Canadian companies in the latest DIANA cohort include Avivo Biomedical, which is working on a device that can convert certain blood types into universal blood, and Alchemy, which is developing a nanoparticle-based thermal camouflage. Some companies recognized in BetaKit’s Most Ambitious also made the cut, such as the Canadian Space Mining Corporation and Volta Space Technologies.
Starting in January 2026, the 150 selected companies from 24 NATO countries will receive contractual funding and gain access to 16 DIANA accelerator sites and more than 200 DIANA test centres across the 32 NATO nations. NATO says the cohort was whittled down from almost 3,700 submissions.
The companies will develop their dual-use (civilian and military) technology for ten different defence and security challenges. These categories include advanced communications, autonomous systems, data-assisted decision making, energy, biotech, maritime operations, space operations, and critical infrastructure and logistics.
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“DIANA’s mission is to find the most innovative companies, help them advance their solutions and grow their business, and get the technologies we need into the hands of NATO operators,” Interim managing director of NATO DIANA, James Appathurai, said in a statement. “Over the next year, these innovators will accelerate breakthrough technologies that can help to transform how the Alliance defends against current and emerging threats.”
This September, Longueuil, Que.-based Reaction Dynamics and Ottawa-based Tactiql received 300,000 euros ($482,000 CAD) each for advancing to the second phase of their NATO DIANA cohort.
The full list of companies in NATO’s 2026 DIANA cohort can be found here.
Feature image courtesy Volta Space Technologies.