Kanata defence startup Dominion Dynamics named OBJ Newsmaker of the Year

Eliot Pence, founder of Kanata-based defence technology company Dominion Dynamics, has been named Newsmaker of the Year by the Ottawa Business Journal and the Ottawa Board of Trade. The honour recognizes Pence's aggressive business philosophy and his success in reshaping Canada's defence technology landscape.

Pence launched Dominion Dynamics on June 6, 2025—a date chosen to coincide with the 81st anniversary of D-Day—and by June 2026 had secured a $139 million CAD Series-A funding round led by Georgian Capital, making it the largest Series-A for a Canadian defence technology company in history. The funding has already attracted major investors including OMERS, RBC, and the British Columbia Investment Management Corp., along with heavyweight advisers including former federal Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole and former chief of defence staff Wayne Eyre.

Pence, a Victoria native with degrees from the University of Victoria and Yale, spent two decades in Washington, D.C., where he spearheaded international expansion for U.S. defence firm Anduril Industries from 2018 to 2022. He returned to Canada determined to create what he calls Canada's own version of Anduril—an ambitious, aggressive integrator of Canadian technologies.

"We will live or die by our ability to either change the rules of the game or play a different game," Pence told OBJ in June, exemplifying his willingness to challenge the Canadian defence establishment. Rather than waiting for requests for proposals from government, Dominion proactively identifies problems and develops solutions. "We just want to show things and have the government say, 'Yeah, we like this or we don't like this.' And we're willing to take that risk. If we wait for an RFP, we'll die. We're venture-backed. We have to land and expand rapidly."

The company's flagship product is AuraNet, a network of sensors and map-based platform that collects, traces, and transmits information from remote regions with no or patchy cell service. Dominion is also developing Scout, an uncrewed, AI-powered drone designed to operate independently or alongside fighter jets in environments too dangerous or remote to risk sending pilots into.

The Canadian Rangers, posted in isolated and coastal regions across the country, used AuraNet technology in the High Arctic earlier this year, demonstrating its capability in the nation's harshest environment. After a request from the Canadian Armed Forces in July, the military establishment has been taking notice of what Pence is building.