Top California Defense Startups (26)

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

Mariana Minerals is a software-first, vertically integrated minerals company focused on supplying critical materials for energy, AI, and defense technologies. It combines digital infrastructure with mineral project development to secure reliable and sustainable supply chains.

Energy and Defence systems, purpose-engineered from first principles. 800+ installations, 25+ countries, 30+ years — designed and built entirely in-house.

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...

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...

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...

Twenty builds cyber technologies that protect democracies worldwide, developing revolutionary technologies that operate at the intersection of the cyber and electromagnetic domains.

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...

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

Stratos Solutions, Inc. is a professional technical services company specializing in systems engineering and technical assistance (advisory services) in support of the U.S. Intelligence Community. We are looking for candidates with a TS/SCI Clerance with a polygraph. To check out current opportunities go to https://stratos-solutions.breezy.hr/ or email [email protected] for more information. Incorporated in Virginia in 2003, our employee-owners average 20+ years...

The world brings ever-evolving challenges; SciTec builds solutions. Our forward-thinking approach provides a wide range of services and fully integrated technical support to the defense industry, governmental agencies, and industrial system development firm applications. We empower our scientists, engineers, and developers to deliver cutting-edge, advanced sensor systems, tailor innovative technologies to our customers’ needs quickly from concept to operational reality,...

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...

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...

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.

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.

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...