defense-tech
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Defense Unicorns makes software work off the grid
A fighter jet can carry modern software and still be hard to update. Defense Unicorns is building the delivery system for the places the internet cannot follow.
Second Front sells the government a shorter wait
Useful software can spend longer waiting for permission than being built. Second Front turns that queue into a business, with an accredited platform that helped one Air Force supplier get through in 58 days.
Govini and the expensive art of finding a missing part
A missile can outlive the company that made its components. Govini built a business tracing those hidden dependencies - and, as Air, is taking on the larger problem of keeping defense ready.
Vermeer taught drones to frame a shot. Then to find their way.
A Hollywood drone business became a supplier of GPS-free navigation. The revealing part is how a tool for getting the picture right found a customer who needed to get the aircraft home.
Ametrine makes camouflage for eyes that do not blink
A soldier can disappear into the landscape and still stand out on a thermal camera. Ametrine builds fabrics, covers and platform coatings for that uncomfortable difference.
Darkhive wants the drone to be the easy part
The San Antonio company builds tactical aircraft. Its more revealing bet is on everything that makes them useful: familiar controls, secure updates and factories that can keep up.
The Internet Has a Moving Problem
Aalyria took the useful machinery from a failed balloon network and gave it a harder job: keep satellites, aircraft, ships and ground stations talking while everything moves.
The Satellite That Had to Wait for a Phone Call
Hedron bet that the most valuable part of a satellite image might be the minutes saved getting it to Earth. Its proposed relay network made a sharp promise: let orbiting sensors keep their radios, then give their data a faster way home.
The $25,000 Search Box That Taught the Pentagon to Buy Software
Vannevar Labs began with an Arabic OCR project nobody urgently needed. Then two engineers built one useful search box - and discovered that in defense technology, relevance beats polish every time.
The Most Expensive Word in Government Is ‘Why?’
ConductorAI began with a forbidden Slack message and a policy nobody could produce. Its answer is software that turns institutional rules into decisions people can inspect, challenge, and finally move forward.
The Bulleit Group finds the story hiding in the machinery
Parking lots, hydrogen forklifts, enterprise AI: The Bulleit Group makes complicated technology legible. Its work offers a useful lesson in earning attention before asking for it.
The Startup Fund That Had to Rewrite Its Pitch Overnight
Ukraine built a public fund to write the first check for young tech companies. War stopped the familiar pitch-day machine - then forced it to become something broader, faster and far more international.
The Norfolk Startup Hub That Charges Founders Nothing - Then Walks Them Toward Capital
757 Collab has turned a downtown Norfolk address into a startup relay race: free desks, hard questions, Navy access and, for a select few, angel checks. The handoffs are the whole idea.
Tech7 Wants the Next Startup Meeting to Happen in the Negev
Born from a shortage of local tech meetups, Tech7 now connects southern Israel’s founders with climate partners, defense customers and international teams. Its proposition is practical: get the right people into the room, then give them something to work on.
Outpost Ventures Checkmate Wants to Win the Contract After the Contract
A first Pentagon award can keep a startup busy. Outpost Ventures Checkmate helps founders pursue what comes next: a government customer, a bigger contract and a business that can survive between the two.
Outpost Ventures Wants Uncle Sam on the Cap Table’s Side
The Alexandria investor backs technology with two potential buyers: business and government. Its bet is that public funding can help private capital carry expensive inventions further.
The Navy Wanted Thousands of Robot Boats. HavocAI Built the Brain That Lets One Person Run the Fleet
Two Navy veterans started with Python, borrowed-looking boats and a blunt thesis: the hull is replaceable; coordination is the product. Two years, dozens of military deliveries and roughly $196 million later, HavocAI is testing whether one software stack can turn sea, air and land robots into a useful team.
Slingshot Quit Watching Earth to Build Air Traffic Control for Space
The Austin-born startup cast too wide a net, killed its original geospatial business, then bought the eyes and memory needed to make orbit legible. Now its software helps satellite operators dodge debris and Space Force Guardians rehearse a conflict that has not happened yet.
Portal Space Systems Wants to Build the Delivery Van, Tow Truck and Fighter Jet of Orbit
Launch got cheaper. Movement after launch did not. Portal is betting that sunlight, ammonia and a 3D-printed thruster can turn satellites from fixed infrastructure into vehicles - if its ambitious flight program catches up with the pitch.
The AI Startup Teaching Machines to Read Matter - Before the Lab Calls Back
HyperSpectral began with a three-hour COVID testing line and a failed ad-tech bet. Now it is building a software layer that promises to turn light into answers - across blood samples, bioreactors, food lines and defense supply chains.
Ibeos Put CubeSat Economics Into Serious Space Hardware - Then Trident Bought the Factory
The Virginia spacecraft supplier spent 13 years turning radiation-tolerant power, batteries and computers into configurable products. Its March 2026 sale to Trident shows what happens when a small engineering shop makes the least glamorous parts of a satellite easier to buy.
Dronehub Crashed the Demo. Then It Built the Part of Drone Autonomy Everyone Else Forgot
A failed flight nearly emptied the order book. The comeback was a sharper idea: stop selling every part of the drone dream and own the two-minute turnaround that makes autonomous inspection practical.
The Startup Trying to Kill the Military's Most Dangerous Weapon: PowerPoint
A West Point officer watched treatment units get built where the virus had already left. He sketched the fix on a napkin. Six years later it is worth $2.15 billion.
Vector Sells the Pentagon a Subscription to Modern Warfare
A 14-month-old drone maker out of Salt Lake City wants to sell the U.S. military warfare the way Adobe sells Photoshop - as a service, updated constantly, billed like a subscription.
The Austin Drone Company Betting the Air Force Will Ditch the $30,000 Helicopter Hour
Skyways flies cargo drones nobody steers - no joystick, no remote pilot - between air bases and out to oil rigs. Now it wants to turn a hand-built aircraft into a production line.
Riot Ventures Built a $1 Billion Firm by Betting on the Physical World
While venture capital chased frictionless software, Riot went looking for friction - factories, fleets, power systems and defense hardware. Its concentrated, multistage strategy now stretches from the first institutional check to pre-IPO rounds.
The Small New York Fund Betting the Next Tech Boom Will Be Built in Concrete, Code and Salt Water
Danu Venture Group is assembling an unusually literal infrastructure portfolio: robots that wash buildings, boats that map oceans, software that audits cyber controls and machines designed to cut underground power corridors. Its wager is that the next technology cycle will be measured not only in model parameters, but in what gets built, secured and kept running.
The Austin VC Firm Betting AI Will Leave the Chat Window
ATX Venture Partners built its name backing Texas software. Its newer thesis is more specific: applied AI that moves through factories, clinics, financial rails and orbit - with operators close enough to help when the software meets the real world.
The Firm That Builds Companies From a CIA Playbook
Most venture firms wait for founders to walk in the door. Red Cell Partners writes the idea first, then goes hunting for the people to build it - a studio model borrowed straight from the intelligence community.
The Venture Fund Where the Partners Used to Run the Missions
New North Ventures backs founders building for both the Pentagon and the marketplace - a dual-use bet led by former intelligence operators and the entrepreneur who built Dyn.