NBIF, BDC and ACOA Fund Vimy Forge's Second Defence Cohort

Vimy Forge will run a second national cohort of defence and dual-use startups in New Brunswick, with support from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, the Business Development Bank of Canada, and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. The partners announced the package on October 7 at DEFSEC Atlantic in Halifax. Entrevestor reported it the next day. The public write-ups do not include a total.

What the funding pays for

NBIF's release says the money will cover business acceleration, incubation, and commercialization programming for Canadian startups and early-stage companies working on defence and dual-use technology. The model NBIF describes recruits those companies from across the country and runs the program in New Brunswick, so the firms meet the province's defence, cybersecurity, and research assets.

"Canada has world-class defence and dual-use innovators, but too many face barriers getting their technology into the hands of customers and end users," co-founder and managing director Duncan McSporran said in the release. "NBIF's support allows us to bring more companies into New Brunswick, connect them with the province's unique defence and cybersecurity assets, and help accelerate their path from innovation to commercialization."

NBIF president and CEO Jeff White called the support a pipeline bet: "Vimy Forge brings promising Canadian companies into that environment. Our support is an investment in a stronger pipeline of companies, capital and capability, both for New Brunswick and for Canada."

Who was in cohort one

The first cohort, which Vimy Forge named Black Flight after the all-Canadian B Flight of the Royal Naval Air Service's No. 10 (Naval) Squadron in 1917, was 10 companies from across Canada, in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, marine robotics, autonomous systems, space, smart textiles, and counter-uncrewed aerial systems. Applications for the second cohort are expected to open soon. People who have already submitted an expression of interest and joined Vimy Forge's Canadian Defence Innovation Map get first access, Entrevestor reported.

This package is separate from the September pairing with MaRS, which was about matching defence startups with investors, and from the $997,000 ACOA grant in February that stood the accelerator up. NBIF's release points at one earlier cheque in the same lane: its $1.5 million in Fredericton's Lastwall, inside a $16 million round led by BDC Capital's StrongNorth Fund.

What stays unpublished

The partners did not publish the size of the new package, the split among NBIF, BDC, and ACOA, or any New Brunswick company named to cohort two. Applications are not open yet. What is on the record is that a second intake has funders and that its programming stays in New Brunswick.

Sources

• NBIF Supports Expansion of National Defence Accelerator Anchored in New Brunswick — October 7, 2026 release: DEFSEC Atlantic announcement with BDC, ACOA, and Vimy Forge; purpose of the funding; McSporran and White quotes; cohort-one fields; Lastwall $1.5 million inside the $16 million round led by BDC Capital's StrongNorth Fund
• NBIF, ACOA, BDC Back Vimy Forge — Entrevestor — October 8, 2026: same funders; total undisclosed; applications expected soon; first access for expression-of-interest filers on the Canadian Defence Innovation Map
• Vimy Forge — program description; first cohort named Black Flight
• Strengthening Atlantic Canada's defence capabilities through Vimy Forge — Canada.ca — February 9, 2026: $997,000 ACOA Regional Defence Investment Initiative, a separate earlier grant
• Fredericton's Vimy Forge Taps MaRS to Match Defence Startups With Investors — September 22, 2026 coverage of the investor-matchmaking partnership