Best Aerospace, Maritime and Defense Tech Companies in Montreal, Canada
The 33 best Aerospace, Maritime and Defense Tech companies in Montreal, Canada in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: GHGSat.
Our analysis of 50 Aerospace, Maritime and Defense Tech companies
$31.9b in tracked funding; 90% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2021.
Ranked: Best Aerospace, Maritime and Defense Tech companies in Montreal
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Patents & IP focus | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GHGSat Provider of satellite-based imaging services to monitor greenhouse gas emissions 60Funding top 18%Moat top 28%Talent top 28%Innovation top 30% All 10 signals ▾Fundingtop 18% Moattop 28% Talenttop 28% Innovationtop 30% Patentstop 31% Techtop 34% Growthtop 35% Newstop 39% Globalbottom 39% Marketbottom 20% Funding: Raised $145M across 7 rounds · 7 rounds over 8 yrs (0.9/yr) Moat: Editorial + unicorn rating 8/10 · IP moat: 31 patents rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 60/100 | $145M | 13 mo ago | Series C | — | 2011 | SalesforceVimeoGSAP+28 | 31 patents Satellite hyperspectral imaging for atmospheric trace‑gas detection and quantification | — |
| 2 | NorthStar Earth & Space Provider of satellite-based data and monitoring services | $134M | 27 mo ago | Series D | Stewart Bain Co-Founder & CEO | 2015 | WordPressApple iCloud MailMicrosoft 365+31 | 7 patents Multi-satellite space imaging and celestial object detection/feature extraction | — |
| 3 | MDA Space Developer of chips, products, and systems for satellite communications technology | $25M | 19 mo ago | Acquired | Yoav Leibovitch Co-Founder | 1969 | WordPressMySQLPHP+24 | — | — |
| 4 | Shearwater Developer of AI-based software for flight navigation 45Talent top 28%Growth top 35%AI top 35%Tech top 43% All 7 signals ▾Talenttop 28% Growthtop 35% AItop 35% Techtop 43% Fundingbottom 48% Globalbottom 29% Marketbottom 18% Talent: 3 named leaders on record · 3 C-suite/founder profiles curated Growth: Fresh capital in last 24 mo rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 45/100 | $3M | 8 mo ago | Seed | Alexandre Borowczyk Co-Founder | 2018 | Wix eCommerceWixSentry+20 | — | — |
| 5 | Fluttrbox Offers aerial real estate property assessments for marketing and insurance using drones | $40K | 128 mo ago | Seed | Aristo Mohit Coker Founder & President | 2013 | — | — | — |
| 6 | Flystro Online marketplace for drone pilots | $33K | 130 mo ago | Deadpooled | Marwan Benyoussef Co-Founder & CTO | 2015 | — | — | — |
| 7 | Luxaerobot Offers design, manufacturing and operation solutions for autonomous atmospheric satellites | $4K | 93 mo ago | Funding Raised | Katrina Albert President | 2018 | — | — | — |
| 8 | Independent Robotics Robotic platforms for underwater exploration | — | 74 mo ago | Seed | — | 2008 | Cart FunctionalitySquarespace CommerceSquarespace+16 | — | — |
Top 10 Aerospace, Maritime and Defense Tech companies in Montreal
#1
Series C · Montreal, Montreal · founded 2011 · 2 employees$145.1Mraised▾
Provider of satellite-based imaging services to monitor greenhouse gas emissions. It provides users with a platform for collecting greenhouse emission data from industries. It has launched satellites that orbit the earth, measures the amount of light absorbed in specific wavelengths of light in spectroscopy, and measures gas leaks. It offers sensor-based solutions via aircraft, and the absorption of light is used to measure the concentration of gases in a specific area. It uses proprietary algorithms for predicting emission rates and detecting leakages and emission patterns.
- Sep 2025Series C$34M
- Sep 2025Conventional Debt—
- Sep 2023Series C$44M
- Sep 2023Conventional Debt—
#2
Seed · Montreal, Quebec · founded 2018 · 7 employees$3Mraised▾
Developer of AI-based software for flight navigation. It offers an artificial intelligence integrated platform for unmanned aerial vehicles to optimize routes by leveraging air currents. It helps to reduce the energy consumption of flights.
- Feb 2026Seed$3M
#3
Acquired · Montreal, Quebec · founded 1969 · 191 employees$25Mraised▾
Developer of chips, products, and systems for satellite communications technology. The company provides solutions for communication payloads and direct-to-cell technology. Its technologies include digital beamforming, beam hopping, and wideband SDR modem. The company also offers electronically steered antenna array, payload on board processing, and RF and analog design technology.
#4
Series D · Montreal, Montreal · founded 2015 · 47 employees$134.3Mraised▾
Provider of satellite-based data and monitoring services. Its offerings include collision avoidance, space monitoring and earth data services for sustainability management. It also provides users with space traffic data.
- Jul 2024Series D—
- Dec 2023Series D$15M
- Dec 2022Series C$35M
- Dec 2021Series B$45M
#5
Seed · Montreal, Montreal · founded 2013 · 2 employees$40Kraised▾
Fluttrbox provides on-demand aerial remote sensing services. It collects data from real estate locations using drones and performs analysis on it, thus producing multiple layers of information on a map of the area for use in property assessments, marketing and insurance claims assessments. Fluttrbox is a graduate of the seed accelerator The Mill, and the Global Insurance Accelerator.ar
- Feb 2016Seed$40K
#6
Deadpooled · Montreal, Montreal · founded 2015 · 4 employees$33Kraised▾
Flystro is an online marketplace connecting drone operators and clients all over the world. Using Flystro, clients can easily find operators and be sure they’re receiving the best price and product. The platform makes billing and mission management easy for operators, so they can concentrate on spending more time flying.
- Dec 2015Grant (prize money)$33K
#7
Funding Raised · Montreal, Quebec · founded 2018 · 15 employees$3.6Kraised▾
Lux is a space robotics company offering design, manufacturing, and operation solutions for autonomous atmospheric satellites. It provides a stratospheric balloon equipped with a camera for understanding the global warming effects.
- Jan 2019Grant (prize money)$3.6K
#8
Seed · Montreal, Montreal · founded 2008 · 11 employees—raised▾
Independent Robotics develops Aqua family of robots which are submersible robots used for ocean exploration. The Aqua2 robot comes in three configurations - mobility base, basic vision and complete vision. The mobility base is a teleoperated platform to be used within line of sight; the basic vision has capability of data link to operator and the Complete vision offering is an untethered offering for uninhibited exploration.
- Aug 2020Seed—
#9
Seed · Montreal, Montreal · founded 2015 · 1 employees—raised▾
Lean Systems is a cloud-based scheduling and route optimization solutions provider. Enables users to export data to their optimization engine through an API, and the company then provides an optimized solution. Its major applications include route optimization, vehicle & crew scheduling for the aviation industry and paratransit operators. It is available on a monthly subscription basis.
- 2017Seed—
- Apr 2017Seed—
#10
Funding Raised · Montreal, Montreal · founded 2014—raised▾
ARA Robotique manufactures flight control systems for drones. Its Skymate line of products can be attached to drones for high-quality radio links, flight data recording, power monitoring and autopiloting. ARA Robotique also provides custom UAV solutions to businesses, including software development and consulting.
- Nov 2015Grant (prize money)—
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Aerospace, Maritime and Defense Tech coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
How research on Launch Vehicles is moving in Canada
A read on the academic research around Launch Vehicles — which themes are gaining ground, the institutions and researchers driving them, and how the tone is shifting. Based on 39 Canada-affiliated papers.
- Toronto Metropolitan University7
- McGill University6
- University of Waterloo3
- University of Toronto3
- Carleton University2
- Rocket (weapon)4
- Rocket engine3
- Aerospace engineering3
- Propulsion3
- Liquid-propellant rocket2
- Aerospace engineering6
- Rocket (weapon)5
- Rocket engine3
- Specific impulse2
- Rocket engine nozzle2
- Rocket (weapon)1→4
Where launch vehicles is researched across Canada
Location clusters by institution affiliation — each city's volume, stance tone, and a quick read on its hot topic, what's advancing, the opening opportunity, and the main concern.
Who's filing launch vehicles patents in Canada
Canada launch vehicles patent filing is accelerating — 29 filings from 7 assignees (2018–2025), led by Laboratoire Reaction Dynamics, Sheerin Geoffrey T, Renaud EARL W; annual filings 2→3.
- Laboratoire Reaction Dynamics15
- Sheerin Geoffrey T8
- Renaud EARL W5
- BAHN Patrick R E5
- Atlantis RES LABS2
- TGV Rockets1
- NAGY Zambo Thomas1
Common questions
Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.