Dayton startup lands 6-figure contract at Air Force Pitch Day
March 7, 2019
Dayton startup Battle Sight Technologies landed a 6-figure contract to commercial tech for the Department of Defense at the inaugural United States Air Force Pitch Day, March 6 in New York City.
“It is an incredible honor to be recognized in the is way by the United States Air Force,” Battle Sight President Nick Ripplinger said. “I founded Battle Sight with the goal of delivering innovative solutions to our troops; this is real validation that what we’re doing is meaningful to warfighters on the front lines.”
The Dayton startup was awarded $65K on the spot to aid commercialization of CrayTac, its infrared crayon — a next-generation chemiluminescence solution to enhance communication in low-light and no-light conditions. Additional follow-on funding will be made available to the company in the next 90 days for a contract total of over $165K.
Battle Sight Technologies is a veteran-owned business rooted in technology licensed from the Air Force Research Lab. The company will use the funds to further enhance its product offering based on feedback from evaluation teams and from the field, Nick said.
The Air Force presented the pitch competition to inspire and accelerate startup creativity toward national security challenges. Pitch Day was open to all ideas furthering national security in air, space and cyberspace in the areas of command, control, communications, intelligence and network solutions; special warfare technologies; and digital technologies. Participating startups and small businesses had to be U.S.-based, for-profit businesses, more than 50% owned by U.S. citizens or permanent resident aliens, and employing less than 500 people.
“This inaugural Pitch Day is unlike anything in the history of the Air Force. In order to boost the U.S. competitive advantage in technology, new processes, like this event, aim to make the Air Force an early adopter of cutting edge technologies from companies of all shapes and sizes,”Ryan Helbach, AFRL Chief Intrapreneur at United States Air Force, said. “Our ability to streamline resources to these innovators enables us to get the best solutions into the hands of our troops faster.”
Ryan led the effort to make Pitch Day a reality. More than 60 companies presented to Air Force leadership and evaluators on March 6. Some pitches were selected for a second presentation to media and other broader audiences on March 7.
Battle Sight Technologies is a service-disabled veteran-owned small business focused on commercializing technologies that improve the day-to-day lives of the warfighter, first responders and emergency management professionals. The CrayTac is the first in a line of innovative security products being developed and commercialized by Battle Sight.
