The Business Development Bank of Canada is joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s defence technology investor network, deepening the Crown corporation’s pivot toward the sector with further insight into the alliance’s defensive priorities.
The bank said its acceptance into the group of investors supporting NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic will help it identify investment and market opportunities across the alliance for the Canadian small-to-medium-sized businesses it works with. It also marks the first time a Canadian investor has joined the group.
“The conditions are right,” said Peter Dawe, senior vice-president of defence strategy at BDC. “We have the talent. We have the know-how amongst our entrepreneurs in Canada, and at BDC, we’re very keen to play our role in terms of supporting them as they strive to meet the moment.”
DIANA was established in 2021 at a NATO summit in Brussels to foster co-operation, interoperability and innovation among allied countries, their technologies and their armed forces. Its affiliated capital network, which BDC has just joined, was launched earlier this year to help the accelerator match entrepreneurs with investors, and vice versa.
The innovation incubator’s North American regional office is in Halifax, which is also the location of COVE, the NATO DIANA-certified accelerator that initially connected BDC to DIANA.
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The bank said that after being connected to DIANA through COVE, and with support from the federal government, it was invited to join the newly created investor network because of its role as Canada’s development bank and its knowledge of the country’s innovation ecosystem.
“Ultimately, Canada is a relatively small market, and so it’s really important for us to pursue diverse markets. This is just another way to get after them,” Mr. Dawe said.
Canada’s presence within DIANA extends well beyond Halifax to include several affiliated facilities. The country is home to nearly 20 such facilities in all, including some of DIANA’s 16 accelerator sites and the more than 200 test centres across NATO.
This year, the federal government said, Canada led the alliance in applications from companies to join DIANA’s six-month accelerator program, the goal of which is to rapidly mature technologies that solve problems faced by allied forces. Of the 150 companies selected for the 2026 NATO DIANA cohort, 22 were Canadian.
Similar to its entrepreneurs, all investors within DIANA’s Capital Network must be based in NATO countries. Successful applicants gain access to not only the pipeline of participating companies, but also briefings by various ministries of defence and other events across the alliance to help inform their investments.
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Mr. Dawe said he’s looking forward to regular engagements with the other investors in the group to discuss what they’re each observing in their respective countries.
“What we envision is being given the opportunity to showcase those technologies that we are seeing percolate in the Canadian ecosystem and those things that we’re investing in, for which, frankly, we might need investment partners,” he said.
The move to join DIANA adds to a series of actions BDC has taken over the past year or so to support the small-to-medium-sized businesses that make up the majority of Canada’s defence industry. Those companies are key to the federal government’s goal of creating sovereign supply chains for critical capabilities.
Earlier this year, BDC increased its defence platform to $6-billion from $4-billion to provide financial support to companies that are aligned with Ottawa’s Defence Industrial Strategy, through mechanisms such as venture capital, financing and advisory services.
In a September announcement, the bank further clarified that $500-million of its new platform is being allocated toward venture capital, growth equity and private equity funds that invest in defence and dual-use technologies, meaning those with both defence and commercial applications. It also announced that another $200-million will be added to its own $300-million venture capital fund, StrongNorth, which invests in early-stage companies with defence applications.
Altogether, the bank said, it has approximately $900-million in exposure to defence and dual-use companies.