Startup roundup: North Vector US$20M, Zafin buys Naehas

Canadian Startup & Funding Roundup is Canada News Media’s weekly look at funding rounds, acquisitions and launches by Canadian companies, drawn from company announcements and published reporting.

Calgary defence startup North Vector Dynamics raised US$20 million in a Series A round, and Toronto banking software maker Zafin agreed to buy California’s Naehas in a deal worth more than US$100 million, headlining a busy week for Canadian companies that ended Oct. 26.

North Vector Dynamics, founded in 2022, builds air and missile defence technology to counter drones. The round values the company at US$90 million (about $126 million), BetaKit reported. Tech Horizons, a European firm focused on defence and security technology, led the round. ONE9, Garage Capital, CSG, Ripple Ventures, Feld Ventures and Conconi Growth Partners also took part.

The company’s flagship product, the CM-70, is a precision-guided counter-drone missile interceptor designed to work with existing military air defence systems. It is not yet in use by any military. CEO Paul Ziadé said the company plans to open an Ottawa office this year, add U.S. and European offices in 2027 and roughly double its headcount to about 50 within six to eight months. Initial manufacturing is expected early next year, with CM-70 deliveries tentatively set for 2027.

“The defence landscape in Canada has evolved,” Ziadé said. In August, North Vector won a four-year, $4.2-million contract from the Department of National Defence, according to BetaKit, and it has previously received $2.5 million in grant funding from the department’s Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security program.

In Toronto, Zafin said Oct. 26 it will acquire Palo Alto, Calif.-based Naehas for a “nine-figure sum in US dollars,” paid through a mix of equity and cash and partly financed by a line of credit, according to BetaKit. The exact price was not disclosed. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2026.

Zafin, founded in 2002, helps banks move off legacy software to tools such as automated pricing, billing and analytics. Naehas adds AI-enabled technology for regulated institutions, particularly in marketing and compliance. Naehas has about 250 employees and US$30 million to US$50 million in annual revenue, while Zafin has nearly 1,000 employees and expects US$200 million in annualized recurring revenue by the end of 2026. Together they expect to serve 16 of the top 20 U.S. banks.

It is Zafin’s first major acquisition since Nordic Capital bought a majority stake in early 2024. Chief executive Charbel Safadi wrote in a LinkedIn post that Naehas “would deepen and extend what Zafin can enable for financial institutions.”

Also on Oct. 26, Burnaby, B.C.-based legal software company Clio announced at its ClioCon conference in Boston that it had acquired Page, a Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., company, BetaKit reported. The price was not disclosed. It is Clio’s ninth acquisition.

Page, founded in 2024 by Ben Cox and Elliot Dohm, sells AI software that tracks new legislation and regulations across more than 80 jurisdictions in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and Australia, according to Cox. Its 12 employees are joining Clio, and Page will keep serving existing clients. The company had raised $5.5 million from investors including Twelve Below, Go Global Ventures, Canaan Partners, Ripple Ventures and Garage Capital. Clio chief executive Jack Newton said “the future of legal AI is knowing where the law is going as clearly as we know where it stands today.”

Another Toronto deal came Oct. 23, when Dayforce agreed to buy Toronto AI interview firm Ribbon, as Canada News Media reported. According to BetaKit, neither the price nor the closing date was disclosed. Ribbon, founded in 2022, runs AI-led screening interviews and raised US$8.2 million in early 2025 in a round led by Radical Ventures. Dayforce founder and chief executive David Ossip said Ribbon “accelerates our vision for agentic recruiting.”

Montreal and Boston biotech DropGenie raised US$5 million (about $7 million) in a seed-plus round, BetaKit reported. Skeleton Key led the round, joined by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, CQDM, Real Ventures, Anges Québec and BDC Capital’s Thrive Fund, a new investor.

Founded in 2018, DropGenie uses miniaturized digital microfluidics to run lab tasks on tiny liquid volumes. Its first product puts gene editing on a small chip, using up to 100 times fewer cells and less reagent than traditional tests. The 10-person company plans to sell automated lab workflows as a service, with a commercial launch in the second quarter of next year. Partners include AbbVie, UCB Pharma, Danaher and Sartorius. CEO Alison Hirukawa said the goal is “making personalized medicines possible by doing the somewhat unsexy work of creating these automation systems.”

Elsewhere in Canadian tech finance, Sudbury, Ont., industrial AI company Symx.ai reported a US$6-million Series A and a partnership with Yokohama, according to BetaKit. Further details of that round were not available at publication time.

The week follows a run of larger deals. Canada News Media has also covered Tenstorrent’s US$1.5-billion raise at a US$6.2-billion valuation, Toronto’s Aerium raising US$2.5 million to build AI for factories, and the previous roundup led by Mecka AI’s US$60-million round.

Amounts are in the currency each company or BetaKit reported, and Canadian-dollar conversions are BetaKit’s. Canada News Media did not independently verify figures beyond the cited reports.

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