Top California Defense Startups (22)

Red 6 is an innovative Augmented Reality (AR) technology startup leading the way in synthetic air combat training. Our primary technology, supporting our ATARS product, enables pilots to simulate the cognitive challenges of flying while accessing realistic, scalable training in dynamic outdoor environments

Turion Space is building the infrastructure to secure and sustain the future of space. Founded to address the growing need for space domain awareness, in-space servicing, and debris mitigation, Turion designs, builds, and operates spacecraft with real-world operational capability. Our vehicles are built for national security and commercial missions that require speed, autonomy, and resilience. We believe the next chapter of...

Virtualitics, the Mission AI Company, is a leader in delivering AI readiness applications for commercial and government organizations. We are a fast growing AI company built on a decade of Caltech research in partnership with NASA/JPL, giving us a unique heritage in mission-critical innovation. We transform mission readiness and operational efficiencies at speed and scale by providing and predicting key...

ANELLO is redefining navigation with next-generation sensors. Founded by pioneers in silicon photonics and inertial navigation, ANELLO has developed its groundbreaking Silicon Photonics Optical Gyroscope - SiPhOG™. The ANELLO SiPhOG™ offers robust performance for the mass-market with true Optical Gyroscope performance. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley and funded by leading venture capital firms. We’re excited to welcome new talent...

Durin was founded under the belief that raw materials should not be a constraint on civilization's progress. We are actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of becoming the foundation of the global supply chain. Our modern way of life, from smartphones to skyscrapers, starts as ore in the ground. But mines don't simply appear. In...

Govini builds software to accelerate the Defense Acquisition Process. Ark, Govini’s flagship product, is a suite of AI-enabled applications, powered by integrated government and commercial data, that solves problems across the entire spectrum of Defense Acquisition, including Supply Chain, Science & Technology, Production, Sustainment, and Modernization. With Ark, the Acquisition community eliminates slow, manual processes and gains the ability to...

Making previously impossible missions possible

Founded in 2024, Scout AI is a venture-backed defense technology company building the AI brain for defense robotics. Fury, Scout's Vision-Language-Action foundation model, is engineered to transform uncrewed platforms into intelligent, mission-adaptive agents. Designed for use across ground, air, sea, and space domains, Fury enables warfighter-level reasoning and one-to-many robotic coordination. Headquartered in Silicon Valley with a center of excellence...

Samara Aerospace is revolutionizing satellite design by addressing the challenges of deploying and managing large satellite constellations. Our innovative Hummingbird spacecraft bus offers a modular and scalable platform that streamlines satellite production and deployment, significantly reducing launch costs. Hummingbird's compact architecture maximizes launch capacity, making it the most efficient and agile spacecraft in the industry. At the core of our...

Intellisense Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of advanced sensing and display solutions supporting a data continuum from acquisition to visualization. We enhance our hardware with software that adds intelligence to our systems and can turn raw data into useful information for improved decision making and process automation. Intellisense Systems offers both off-the-shelf products and custom development services. These services include...

Umbra builds next-generation space systems that observe the Earth in unprecedented fidelity. Our mission: Deliver global omniscience. To stay ahead of climate change, geopolitical risk, and other major crises and issues, we need a global understanding of what is changing, where, and how fast. Umbra provides easy access to the highest quality commercial satellite data available, which is an indispensable tool for...

Space Kinetic is focused on our nation’s most urgent national security priorities. Our goal is to rethink space operations down to first principles to deliver game-changing capabilities for missile defense and space superiority.

Our goal is to deliver composite parts faster than any other supplier in the market. We want to continually impress our customers with our speed, quality, and responsiveness to their needs.

Building the frontline service to safeguard all off-earth operations.

Artemis Consulting is a small, woman-owned business, founded in 2005, and headquartered in San Diego, CA.  We are a business consulting firm dedicated to delivering superior professional support consulting services.  We partner with customers throughout the Department of Defense to deliver critical acquisition, programmatic, and functional support that enables our clients to overcome their most persistent challenges.

Starseed AI is the proprietary multi-modal fusion AI platform for external cybersecurity and intelligence, designed to empower organizations with cutting-edge solutions that safeguard their reputation, foster secure environments, and enable informed decision-making.

Dedrone is a leader in airspace security. With more customers around the world than any other airspace security company, we enable our clients to protect people, property, and information from the threat of drones, while enabling the “good” drones to take off (pun intended). The simple fact is that no security company can build a barrier strong enough or high...

The space segment has become critical infrastructure. It powers everything from GPS and climate monitoring to missile warning and global broadband. But the ground segment hasn’t kept up. Most ground networks today were designed for science missions, not for the scale, urgency, or diversity of today’s space economy. At Northwood, we’re building a global, software-defined ground network from the ground...

Founded in 2021, Muon Space is an end-to-end Space Systems Provider that designs, builds, and operates LEO satellite constellations delivering mission-critical data. Our revolutionary, integrated technology stack enables customers to optimize every dimension of their missions for faster time-to-orbit and superior constellation remote sensing performance. From climate monitoring to national security, Muon Space is dedicated to delivering Earth intelligence for a...

FormAlloy is an advanced manufacturing company specializing in Directed Energy Deposition (DED) additive manufacturing solutions. We provide cutting-edge metal additive manufacturing systems and services that help industries like aerospace, defense, energy, and automotive improve part performance, reduce waste, and streamline production. Our proprietary technology includes real-time monitoring, multi-material capability, and smart software integrations that redefine how complex metal components are...