BDC Defence Platform names space for the first time

The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) named space for the first time in a Defence Platform release, as it detailed Tuesday how $1 billion will move into two investment vehicles under the $6-billion program. BDC, a federal Crown corporation that lends to and invests in small and medium-sized Canadian businesses, introduced the platform in December with $4 billion, when its list of priority sectors included manufacturing, critical minerals, robotics, quantum computing, aerospace, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. The platform grew to $6 billion in March, when the federal government added $1.2 billion in new capital, and Ottawa’s own Defence Industrial Strategy named space a sovereign capability around the same time. Half the new money will flow into venture capital, growth-equity and private-equity funds that back Canadian and allied defence and dual-use technology. That vehicle, the $500-million Defence Fund, lists space alongside artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced materials, quantum technology and energy systems as areas it wants to reach. Its first disclosed investment, in Intrepid Growth Partners’ new fund for artificial-intelligence companies, has no stated direct space focus. “Canadian entrepreneurs are developing technologies that are increasingly important to Canada’s security, resilience and economic growth,” BDC president and chief executive officer Isabelle Hudon said in the release. The rest went to StrongNorth, BDC’s fund for early-stage dual-use companies, which grows to $500 million from $300 million with Tuesday’s top-up. StrongNorth’s own target list also names space, next to artificial intelligence, autonomy, cybersecurity, secure communications and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). StrongNorth’s one disclosed investment under the fund, announced in April, went to Landing Zones Canada, which builds reusable drones for the stratosphere. BDC made Tuesday’s announcement at the Canada Investment Summit where, a day earlier, federal officials pitched investors on four Canadian space projects, including Telesat’s Lightspeed constellation.