Critical infrastructure powers Canada’s economy, from energy grids and transportation networks to mining operations and urban systems. Technology that can serve both commercial and defence needs, known as dual-use tech, is emerging as a defining opportunity for Canadian innovation.

The 2025 Federal Budget underscored this shift, with major investments in domestic technology, cybersecurity, and defence innovation. 

And for startups, it signals a new era for companies building secure, sovereign solutions.

Now, one Ottawa-based startup, Metropolitan Technologies, is showing what this opportunity looks like in practice.

From defence to commercial innovation

After 14 years in defence and aerospace, founder Daly Brown decided to take his expertise into the startup world.

“I kind of wanted to do my own thing and leave the big corp to do a startup,” Brown said.

By early 2023, he had incorporated Metropolitan Technologies, building software and hardware solutions to secure defence networks, energy grids, industrial operations, and other critical infrastructures.

“The goal of the company was to build critical infrastructure protection solutions for both the defence and the commercial world,” Brown said. “We started leaning on our defence background to try to talk to different partners that we’d worked with before that were kind of in the dual-use space.”

Trust as a competitive advantage

In sectors like critical infrastructure, where the consequences of subversion can be catastrophic, trust can make or break a startup. Knowing that, Metropolitan Technologies worked to leverage credibility from defence partnerships to accelerate growth.

“Trust is one of the biggest barriers to a startup becoming competitive. Associating ourselves with a company like CAE gives us a leg up in the market because they are a respected brand worldwide and working with them helps bridge that trust barrier,” Brown explained.

This approach led to a recent partnership with CAE Defence & Security, Canada’s largest sovereign defence company.

“If we want to put Team Canada together as our first go-to-market strategy, there’s no better company than CAE,” Brown said. “And I really like the people that work there, they’ve been really supportive from day one.”

Building the secure digital backbone

Metropolitan’s platform acts as a middleware layer, integrating physical infrastructure and control systems to manage assets and data securely.

“It securely integrates and protects all the assets and data out there and integrates it with the existing control centers and applications, providing highly available, highly resilient network and data infrastructure for operating our essential services,” Brown said.

The company’s vision extends across sectors, from providing the secure digital infrastructure to northern mining operations to managing urban grids, transportation systems, and defence networks.

A national push for sovereign capabilities

Budget 2025 also emphasized sovereign technology, earmarking funds for homegrown defence innovation, AI, and cybersecurity. These investments aim to keep Canadian IP in Canada while ensuring the country can operate and defend its own critical systems.

“Canada is seen as a trusted partner in the world. We're a stable country,” said Brown. “It’s important to have a trusted partner in the world, and Canada can fit that need for people looking for alternatives to what the incumbents are offering.”

For dual-use startups, the 2025 budget represents a structural shift toward resilience, creating opportunities for companies ready to build in complex, high-trust sectors at home.

Why collaboration is key

Innovation at this scale doesn’t happen in isolation.

“The ecosystem is important. No company can do it all by itself,” he said. “It’s important to collaborate within industry, but it’s also important for the government to get involved and help establish and amplify companies.”

For dual-use startups, collaboration bridges the trust gap between early-stage innovation and national infrastructure demands, creating faster paths to market and confidence among buyers.

Why it matters for founders

Canada is signalling that innovation and security now go hand in hand. The 2025 Federal Budget shows that the next wave of national competitiveness will rely on startups capable of building secure, scalable, and sovereign solutions.

For founders like Brown, the lesson is clear. It’s time to look beyond traditional markets, apply commercial innovation to national challenges, and position Canada as a global leader in trusted technology.

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