This is one in a series of stories featuring businesses in the Brock LINC’s incubation program, the LINCubator. The LINCubator supports a small cohort of early-stage businesses and helps them reach their next stage of business development. The eight-month program combines workshops, mentorship, networking, business coaching and partnerships with local investor groups. For more information on the LINCubator, visit brocku.ca/linc/lincubator

While many people used downtime at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to take up a new hobby,  Hayden Maass took the opportunity to start a new business.

In spring 2020, Maass founded Bornea Dynamics, a company focused on innovative technologies, such as drones, with military, security and policing applications.

“While many people think of drones as fun hobby tools or toys, they have become increasingly popular as an attack mechanism for terrorists,” says Maass.

Drones are simple to navigate from outside enemy lines and are widely accessible in today’s market, he says. They are being armed with small missiles and dropped into enemy lines undetected, like the one suspected in an attack in Abu Dhabi earlier this month.

Maass noticed a clear gap in the availability of technology to safely defeat commercially available drones, which led to the development of his company’s CDAM-9 Anti UAS technology — a prototype defensive technology that targets and defeats adversarial drones effectively.

“We found that existing solutions are either extremely limited in capability or prohibitively expensive and not appropriate for use within Canada,” says Maass.

The CDAM-9, which uses reusable non-explosive missiles, can operate as rifle mounted, standalone hand-carried and vehicle/ship mounted. It is cost effective and can capture and disable non-explosive attack modes for precise interceptions, Maass says.

“We decided to create a ‘middle-of-the-road’ solution that is both affordable and provides the increased capability to better protect critical infrastructure, military installations and public gatherings,” he says.

With the initial launch of his business and flagship prototypes, Maass has been using his time at the LINCubator to focus on the foundational elements of the business to position it for growth.

“The LINCubator has provided access to resources and workshops that have given me a strong baseline to grow the business, and build out systems and processes to safely support this growth,” he says.

Bornea Dynamics is now beginning to explore new technologies, including designing a prototype of a facial hair inclusive respirator for the personal protective equipment sector.

For more information on the company, visit bornea.ca