Arctic Edge Panel: Defence Tech, Dual-Use, and the Future of Canadian Innovation

**Matt Cohen** (0:00)
We do have a problem at the early stage that we have been a part of, mostly because one of our LPs kind of look for, which is like the fund math model, right? They look at, does your ownership equal your fund size? And can I rationalize that to be an LP in your fund? So then we go out and we say, well, we can buy 10% for this amount of money, and therefore, by the time we get diluted and the exit, the multiples for the fund math, we'll work itself out. And that model is blowing up completely. Welcome back to Tank Talks. I'm your host, Matt Cohen, founder and managing partner of Ripple Ventures. This week's episode is a recording from the Arctic Edge panel I was a guest speaker on discussing Canadian Defence Tech and Investment held on May 26, 2026 at TORI's LLP offices in downtown Toronto as part of the Toronto Tech Week event.
Canada is entering a defining period of Arctic sovereignty and national security. Against that backdrop, the event brought together founders, CEOs, investors, government representatives and executives to examine the rise in homegrown defence technology companies and the capital needed to scale them. In this episode, you will hear the panel discuss The Backers, moderated by Matthew Lombardi, co-founder of The Icebreaker, discuss the topics with myself alongside Mark Maybank, co-founder and managing partner of Maverix Private Equity, and Devin Galloway, general partner at Garage Capital.
In this session, we explore how capital is being deployed into Canadian Defence Tech, what investors look for when backing companies in the sector, the evolving role of government as both customer and enabler, and the practical realities of building and scaling these businesses in Canada. I hope you enjoy the conversation.

**Matthew Lombardi** (1:34)
We are very excited for our final panel of the day. We're calling this one The Backers, the folks who are putting money into Defence and Dual Use.
Same question as the last panel, and I'll start at the far end. Who are you, and where do you work, and why are you here?

**Devin Galloway** (1:50)
I'm Devin Galloway. I'm a partner in a fund called Garage Capital. We're based in Waterloo, have been investing in Defence companies since 2014
I have the pleasure of having many of our portfolio companies in the room, so thank you, and many sitting on panels today. Yeah, just thrilled to be here. Obviously, continue, very excited about the momentum we're feeling in Canada in this moment, and that's our backstory.

**Matt Cohen** (2:12)
Hi, everyone. I'm Matt Cohen, founder and managing partner of Ripple Ventures. We're an early stage venture fund focused on inception and precede investments in Canada and the US. We've been around since 2018
We have offices here in Toronto and Vancouver investing out of our fourth fund now, and have evolved from a traditional B2B SaaS fund as now into more of a generalist and also now Defence Investment Fund.

**Mark Maybank** (2:34)
Hey, good morning. Thank you, everyone, for joining. I'm Mark Maybank, co-founder and managing partner of Maverix Private Equity.
Unlike two of the top GP venture capitalists here in Canada, we're a little bit later stage. We're growth stage, larger check size, 50 to 70 million US. Dual use slash defence has been part of our mandate since day one. We invest in Canada in the US.

**Matt Cohen** (2:56)
Awesome.

**Matthew Lombardi** (2:57)
Okay. Let's start out with what Elliot said on the previous panel. Dual use is just so that VCs like you guys can make your LPs feel good.

**Matt Cohen** (3:05)
Where is he? That's not fair.

**Mark Maybank** (3:08)
All right, Matt, you want to take the first kick.

**Matt Cohen** (3:10)
Okay. First off, who's ever raised LP dollars for a venture capital fund here? Which one's harder? In Canada. The LP side. When the LPs around the room are putting in certain structures into their LPA agreements, it makes it harder for us as venture capitalists to do things that we want to do. Devin may have gotten away with certain things that maybe I wouldn't have been able to get away with. We all want to back amazing founders. That's the answer. We want to say. But at the end of the day, we are restricted in the ways that we can do a lot of things. Until recently, because of the changing in the tide and with the government changes here, everyone saw the announcement from BDC.
That happened very quickly. We got wind of it within like 24, 48 hours before it was even announced. That just shows you how quickly we were able to do things. They announced this fund and then all of a sudden, our LPA has changed dramatically and we are now allowed to do investments into things like dual use.