Culminating the first year of a new grant program focused on eastern Kern County and Antelope Valley, five promising startups in the region’s aerospace and defense sector have been selected to receive a total of $400,000.
The startups, none of which are based in Kern, won a minimum of $50,000 from the Mojave Aerospace Accelerator Fund launched earlier this year by a partnership supporting commercialization of defense technology testing capabilities at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake and Edwards Air Force Base.
Last month’s awards, announced publicly this week, represent a significant step for the partnership, which is composed of Kern’s B3K Prosperity economic development organization, the New York-based Griffiss Institute and El Segundo-based innovation accelerator Starburst.
In a news release Tuesday, Starburst’s managing U.S. director, Lukas Oberhofer, used the term “dual-use innovation” to refer to the winning startups’ intent to introduce technologies that build on the country’s defense capabilities while also advancing private companies’ entrepreneurial hopes.
“Dual-use innovation is vital to the future of aerospace,” he stated, “and these awardees prove what is possible when regional collaboration meets entrepreneurial ambition.”
The MAACC fund granted three companies $100,000 each. They are: BQP, a New York-based company with a quantum software platform for complex modeling and simulation for aviation, space and defense; Nefeli Air, an Ohio company working on aircraft detection and collision avoidance for unmanned flight; and VTOLogic Inc., a Boston-based company developing unmanned aircraft that take off and land vertically.
Two startups got $50,000 each: Aerhart, an Oklahoma-based aerospace tech company working on improving urban air mobility aircraft; and Boston-based Endox, whose artificial intelligence-enabled inspection and maintenance platform works with conventional aircraft and vehicle fleets.
Griffiss Executive Vice President Matthew Mroz said in Tuesday’s release the fund’s goal is to preserve U.S. competitiveness and outpace the country’s adversaries while supporting regional economic growth.
“We are focused on deploying resources where it matters — supporting emerging technologies that strengthen our industrial base, serve the warfighter and secure our nation’s critical infrastructure,” he stated.
BQP’s founder, CEO and chief scientific officer, Abhishek Copra, said the company’s award has come just as quantum computing evolves from theory to technology deployable in the real world. He thanked Starburst and Griffiss, with which the startup has worked in the past.
The fund’s establishment has added grant capabilities to a multifaceted strategy for creating more jobs and economic opportunities within a local sector that has historically turned out important defense and aerospace advancements.
In August, regional economic developers unveiled a $2 million partnership funded by Congress to develop an aerospace hub linking both of the county’s military bases with local industry.
Shortly afterward, the U.S. Air Force opened a $41 million Flight Test Engineering Lab intended to improve U.S. military readiness at Edwards while also upgrading the region’s workforce training capabilities.
B3K President and CEO Georgia Petropoulos expressed hope the partnership will continue to attract talent “necessary to advance technologies that align with our national defense priorities.”
