The Forge Institute in Little Rock held a “Demo Day” at the Clinton Presidential Library on Thursday afternoon to commemorate the completion of its months-long Phoenix Xcelerator process.
Forge’s Phoenix Xcelerator was created to offer feasibility and mentorship to startups in the aerospace and defense industries. It started by choosing five small businesses that wanted to get into cybersecurity and national defense. The Xcelerator is a component of Forge’s overall objective to use military and defense industries to boost the state economy by $1 billion by 2030.
Today, Arkansas is home to more than 170 aerospace and defense businesses that employ more than 10,000 people and generate over $1.7 billion in revenue annually.
Forge Chairman and CEO Lee Watson stated, “We believe this is the right five to build Arkansas.” Watson also stated that Forge has two goals: to support the state economy and to pursue innovation to preserve the nation’s “unfair advantage” in homeland defense problems.
“It’s getting really complicated,” Watson remarked. Cybersecurity is a component of all of that. It is when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) moves, not when China does. Although there will undoubtedly be kinetic activity in the Indo-Pacific, there will also undoubtedly be cyber activity at home, and much more work needs to be done.
Walter Burgess, co-CEO of Alexander-based Power Technology, joined Watson from Bryant. Since the Xcelerator’s founding, Burgess has been a “entrepreneur in residence,” joining a 17-member advisory board that includes experts from industries such as business, military intelligence, cyber security, and information security.
“We’ve seen these companies undergo incredible transformation over the last 12 weeks,” Burgess stated. “This specific defense-specific expertise gives our small businesses and startups a clear edge as they successfully navigate and seize defense-related business opportunities.”
The five firms that were represented on Thursday went through a rigorous procedure that includes instruction in manufacturing, marketing, and technology development. Presenters on Thursday included:
- Mod Tech Labs (Austin, Texas) demonstrated an AI-powered platform that generates improved and automated visual data to provide defense-related training and simulation materials fast.
- Plans for autonomous cars with a patented propulsion system that can go smoothly on land, in water, or underwater were presented by TaterTek LLC (Des Arc).
- In a battlefield setting, Orion Edge Group (Lakewood, Colorado) demonstrated wearable individual electromagnetic devices that enable people to interfere with an adversary’s communication and navigational networks.
- AI developments in material manufacturing were demonstrated by Boston Mountain Defense (Fayetteville) to improve the survivability of military soldiers.
- Presenting laser-powered spotlight technology for long-range night movements in a maritime setting was NextGen Lights (Fayetteville).