Startups selected for the NSIN Venture accelerator are exploring defense applications with commercial technologies, all with the potential to solve real-world DoD challenges.

A cohort of 20 ventures selected for the 2023 National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) Vector accelerator will apply their commercial innovations to address key national security focus areas including the war in Ukraine, strategic deterrence, and Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2).

Three key facts about the 2023 Vector Cohort:

  • Each of the startups has a commercial technology that aligns with one or more of the 14 DoD modernization priorities identified to advance our nation’s security.
  • Startups in the cohort represent every state where NSIN is placing Mission Acceleration Centers (MACs).
  • Four of the startups are NSIN program alumni: Nalu Scientific, Specturm Decoy, RDMT, and Ultralight Industries.

During Vector, the cohort will work with Department of Defense (DoD) partners to learn about raising capital, understand federal procurement, conduct market research, and receive more resources to scale their solutions for DoD organizations. During a showcase event at the end of the cohort, the startups will show a range of military organizations and innovators how their innovations can solve national security challenges. The top three teams at the showcase will receive $25,000, $15,000 and $10,000, respectively. All the teams, however, will walk away with the tools they need to pursue business opportunities with the government.

Meet the 2023 NSIN Vector Cohort

  • 4D Avionic Systems - 4D Avionic Systems provides industry and the government with better management of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) traffic and flight operations with an autonomous conflict detection and resolution (CD&R) software. The software alerts UAV traffic and flight operations controllers to potential conflicts and gives them a number of potential resolution maneuvers.
  • AI Asset Management - AI Asset Management provides the government with small, secure, affordable, and efficient language models (ELM).
  • AIVS Inc. - AIVS enables the government to improve audio surveillance using their three dimensional (3D) accelerometer-based acoustic vector sensor (AVS) network. The system provides information about sound direction and range, enabling it to autonomously characterize noise events.
  • Blink Frames - Blink Frames develops artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled smart eyewear that provides the government a tool to track eye health, the local environment, and consciousness.. The technology uses sensors and a camera to continuously collect data and provide information to help improve health while also quickly identifying anomalies to help diagnose conditions.
  • Compli.ai - Compli.ai leverages automation and AI to make cybersecurity compliance easier for organizations. Its technology improves system security and delivers a clearer common operational picture for DoD and Federal computing ecosystems.
  • HDO Health - HDO Health enables first responders and Warfighters to provide life-saving medical care in the field. Even without medical training, warfighters can quickly apply HDO Health’s compact, portable junctional tourniquet device. Moreover, the device stays secure during patient transport, reducing blood loss during care.
  • HyperBorean - HyperBorean enables industry and the government to meet sustainability goals while increasing grid resiliency and the lifespan of existing equipment through its innovation that converts heat into supplemental cooling for equipment shelters. The venture harnesses waste heat to power refrigeration and air-conditioning loops.
  • Nalu Scientific - Nalu Scientific provides the government with better situational awareness with custom sensing solutions. Their systems improve on the size and power requirements for domain awareness and have applications for key technologies such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR).
  • New Frontier Aerospace - New Frontier Aerospace enables industry and the government to improve operations of hypersonic aircraft, upper stages, maneuvering spacecraft, and planetary landers with a full-flow staged combustion engine that delivers high thrust in comparison to its weight.
  • ParaWave, LLC - ParaWave allows first responders and the government to improve decision making in emergency scenarios with an autonomous, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven unmanned aerial system (UAS) that plans its own missions and relays crucial information back to crew members on the ground.
  • Rapid Deployment Medical Training (RDMT) - RMDT enhances tactical combat casualty care (TCCC) with training aids that enable Warfighters to aid one another with basic emergency medical care. The aids teach essential, life-saving skills such as wound packing and tourniquet application.
  • Raven Space Systems, Inc - Raven Space Systems will allow industry and the government to return resources from space, quickly deliver supplies globally, and more with low-cost, rapidly produced reentry vehicles.
  • Revolute Robotics - Revolute Robotics provides the Warfighter capabilities for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and search and rescue while keeping them out of harm’s way. Their hybrid ground and aerial robot has a durable exoskeleton and navigation in Global Positioning System(GPS)-denied environments, allowing Warfighters to remotely explore dangerous, confined, and complex spaces.
  • Rocket Propulsion Systems, LLC - Rocket Propulsion Systems will help industry and the government scale up space operations by providing low-cost rocket engines that reduce the overall cost of small rockets.
  • SAVRpak - SAVARpak enables industry and government to reduce food waste and deliver food that is fresher with a food-safe, biodegradable pack that pulls condensation from the air to extend the shelf life of food.
  • Soovu Labs - Soovu Labs enables private and governmental healthcare providers to give their patients access to drug-free pain relief with a wearable, pulsed heat technology and pain coaching system. The low-profile system allows patients with chronic pain to treat their symptoms on the go and provides more effective, longer-lasting relief than traditional heating pads.
  • Spectrum Decoy - Spectrum Decoy provides the government counterintelligence to give Warfighters informational advantages over their adversaries in contested domains. Their system utilizes electromagnetic spectrum decoy mesh networks that emulate military communications.
  • ThermaSat - ThermaSat enables the government to have in-space mobility and to conduct in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM) with fewer emissions by leveraging steam as a propellant. Their system uses solar to power the propulsion system, meaning that the energy and propellant are both renewable.
  • Ultralight Industries - Ultralight Industries provides industry and the government with a streamlined user experience for radio frequency (RF) technology with their versatile RF platform. By converging tasks that previously required bespoke hardware, the company reduces the size, weight, power & cost (SWaP-C) of RF equipment.
  • VRx Solutions - VRx Solutions fuses Virtual Reality (VR) with medical services for individuals that suffer from PTSD, anxiety, depression, panic disorder, loss of family members, substance abuse and many others in a secure, safe and easily deployable environment.

About National Security Innovation Network

NSIN is a program office in the U.S. Department of Defense, nested within the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). We are set up to collaborate with a wide variety of innovators to include universities, researchers, students, entrepreneurs and start-ups. We create opportunities for collaboration across communities and connect those that might not traditionally work in national security. Together, we help drive national security innovation and develop technologies that directly support the individuals responsible for protecting our country.

For more information or interview requests with Team NSIN, please contact us at media@nsin.mil.