The Catalyst Accelerator is excited to announce the selection of seven outstanding small businesses with innovative, complementary tech solutions. These companies will come together from across the globe to participate in the Accelerator’s 13th cohort focused on Space Domain Awareness.
The Catalyst Accelerator, powered by the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate (AFRL/RV), exists to empower nontraditional technology companies to accelerate their involvement in the national defense ecosystem by providing connections, mentorship, and business development in a collaborative setting for a lasting national impact. Space Domain Awareness is the ability to rapidly detect, track, characterize, and attribute threats to our nation’s space assets, and plays a pivotal role in national security. The United States Space Force recognizes the urgency of protecting space mission sensors and systems and sought to leverage commercial software capabilities to enhance, supplement, support, and refine existing Space Domain Awareness capabilities.
The Space Domain Awareness cohort (#CASDA2) is the first Accelerator in partnership with The Space Domain Awareness Tools, Applications & Processing Lab (SDA TAP Lab). Maj Sean Allen, Chief of the SDA TAP Lab, explained, “The TAP Lab is partnered with Catalyst Campus to feed companies directly from the Catalyst Accelerator into the lab. They mature the business model, and the lab helps accelerate the product. This means companies are better positioned to build what the NSDC and Delta 2 need, and are more likely to make sales. Last week, I had the privilege of reviewing pitches for the Catalyst Accelerator. It was amazing to see the expertise of these startups. I learned a lot and am confident our partnership will ultimately improve the quality of commercial space battle management software.”
The #CASDA2 cohort will meet two weeks per month beginning March 19th and ending June 14th. Each company will collaborate with subject matter experts, work with government and commercial Navigators, and complete an intensive customer discovery process. The cohort will culminate in a Demo Day on June 13th where they will pitch their technology to Government and Industry partners as well as investors assessing the potential of cohort company technologies. After the conclusion of the program, the companies will be positioned well to participate in the SDA TAP Lab’s 4th Project Apollo cohort if they choose to do so.
The Catalyst Accelerator team, with technical advisement from Government, Industry, and Academia, underwent a rigorous selection process in order to carefully choose the companies for the #CASDA2 cohort. The following startups were chosen based on their demonstrated potential and innovative capability solutions:
