We build the defence companies Canada does not yet have.
A defence venture studio. We originate, form, capitalise and govern independent Canadian companies across the land, air, maritime and cyber domains — built for the capability requirements of the next decade rather than the last one.
Why now
The policy has changed. The industrial base has not.
In February 2026 Canada published its first Defence Industrial Strategy. It identifies approximately $180 billion in defence procurement opportunity over the coming decade, sets a target of 70 percent of defence acquisitions going to Canadian firms, and establishes a Defence Investment Agency to make that shift happen. Its framing is explicit: Canada will build where sovereign capability matters, partner where that capability does not yet exist, and buy only on terms that reinvest at home.
The intent is now settled. The industrial capacity to meet it is not.
The gap
Canada has no domestically owned Tier 1 prime.
The companies holding Canada’s largest defence programmes are, with few exceptions, subsidiaries of foreign parents or shipbuilders concentrated in a single platform class. Between them and the country’s genuinely strong technology base sits very little: few Canadian firms with the scale, security standing, programme discipline and capital to carry a capability from prototype through to a programme of record and sustain it for thirty years.
That gap does not close through procurement policy. It closes when the companies exist to fill it.
Building those companies is the whole of what Ensis Studio does.
Where we build
Land
Uncrewed systems, counter-uncrewed capability, land C5ISRT, fires modernisation and tactical sustainment.
Air
Uncrewed combat air, persistent surveillance of northern approaches, air-launched effects and cross-domain ISR.
Maritime
Uncrewed surface and subsurface systems for domain awareness, reconnaissance and effect across three oceans.
Cyber & Intelligence
Quantum-safe communications, cyber operations capability, AI-assisted intelligence exploitation and quantum sensing.
How we build
Originate
Concepts start from an identified operational requirement, not from a technology looking for a customer. Each is tested against real demand before anything is formed.
Form and fund
Each concept becomes a separate Canadian company with its own founder, its own customer path and its own board.
Govern
Capital is released against evidence at defined gates. A company that does not progress does not draw further capital.
The team
Andrew Grieve · Ian Watt · Scott Savage · Andrew Fursman
Four founding principals with combined experience in command appointments in the Canadian Armed Forces, defence policy at the ministerial level, deep-technology company building and exit, and institutional capital and transactions.
Three ways to engage.
Build with us
You have the technical depth and the appetite to lead a company. Start at the founders page.
Partner or supply
You hold capability, capacity or a technology position relevant to one of our domains. Get in touch.
Talk to us
You are a government, allied or institutional counterpart and want a conversation. Get in touch.