Canada Ex-Defense Minister’s Startup Juno Sees Anduril-Type Role

Article content

(Bloomberg) — A defense technology startup chaired by Canada’s former defense minister is raising funds while the country rapidly rearms, and launched its first product aimed at Arctic security.

Article content

Vancouver-based Juno Industries Inc. hopes to close a Series A round of about C$10 million ($7.2 million) by mid-April, Chief Executive Officer Hunter Scharfe said in an interview. The startup “will probably be doing another round quite quickly after that” to fund testing, hiring and facilities, he said.

Article content

Article content

Article content

Scharfe’s co-founder and executive chairman is Harjit Sajjan, who was Canada’s defense minister from 2015 to 2021, and before that served as an officer in the Canadian Armed Forces.

Article content

Article content

Juno, founded last April, will announce on Friday it’s developing a hub for communications, drones and sensors in Arctic environments called Polar Nexus, which Scharfe said will be “the first of many sensor nodes and deploy platforms” from the company. It will be made in partnership with Critical Infrastructure Technologies Ltd.

Article content

Juno’s ambition is to be a “neo-prime,” a term used for fast-growth startups like Anduril Industries Inc. that are racing with the traditional “prime” defense contractors like Lockheed Martin Corp. to deliver new security technology. 

Article content

Juno is in talks with the armed forces, Sajjan said in the interview. A former commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Michael Hood, is an adviser to to the company. 

Article content

“Autonomous systems are going to become the forefront of defense investment,” and “those systems are very powerful and have a lot of different data capabilities,” Scharfe said. But the issue, he said, is what platform will be trusted to trawl through the data, interpret it, and provide officials options for action.

Article content

Article content

“Juno absolutely wants to be that platform,” Scharfe said.

Article content

The company has about 20 employees today and Scharfe said it may double over the coming weeks. He has looked in part to the rapid growth of companies like Anduril, as well as Palantir Technologies Inc., citing the latter’s Maven artificial intelligence system, which as been embraced by the Pentagon. Juno also describes its mission as reestablishing “Canadian dynamism,” which echoes the name of the “American Dynamism” team at US venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which funds so-called “national interest” projects.

Article content

Juno is positioning itself to benefit from a wave of money headed for Canadian defense businesses. On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the government hit its North American Treaty Organization target to spend 2% of gross domestic product on defense, and he has pledged to buy more military gear in Canada and less from US suppliers. He has committed with the rest of NATO to increase the spending to 3.5% of GDP, with another 1.5% on related infrastructure, by 2035.

Article content

A major part of that spending will go toward defending Canada’s far north, as polar ice melts and the region becomes more contested.

Article content

Juno is named after the codename for the beach where Canadian troops landed on D-Day in the Second World War — “a seminal moment of Canadian identity and sovereignty,” and “a reminder of great Canadian ambition and fearlessness,” said Scharfe, who was previously an adviser to quantum firm BTQ Technologies Corp. 

Article content

Juno is not the only startup vying to serve a fast-militarizing Canada: In January, a Toronto-based rival called Dominion Dynamics Inc. raised C$21 million, backed by Canadian tech leaders.

Article content