CRP DefenseTech Accelerator to host demo and pitch finale for second cohort

HUNTSVILLE – This week, the second cohort of the CRP DefenseTech Accelerator will culminate as the five companies pitch their products and technologies to investors and local business and community leaders.  

The program is 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at the University of Alabama in Huntsville Invention to Innovation Center, 850 Ben Graves Drive.

The five companies in the cohort are FC Renew, MESO Space, SkyfireAI, Titomic, and Vivum AI. 

• FC Renew – FC Renew is advancing hydrogen fuel cell technology by developing an innovative refurbishment process and a new product line focused on extending stack lifetime and durability. The company’s options reduce total ownership expenses by 50% and will accelerate hydrogen technology adoption across critical sectors including eVTOL aircraft and aviation transportation, maritime vessels, ground delivery vehicles, industrial equipment, and stationary power systems. 
• MESO Space – A revolutionary product of an advanced oxidizer is being commercialized, and its attributes hold significant promise for advanced earth and space travel systems, manned or robotic. Specifically, it has profound implications for configuring responsive, reusable “single stage” vehicle packages for robust, low cost and synergistically intertwined hardware that can exploit the scalable benefits of this invention (such as “multi-mode” propulsion and electrical power). It can enable expanded and efficient military or civil operations in the atmosphere or in the vacuum of space. 
• SkyfireAI – Led by a team with deep industry expertise, SkyfireAI offers turnkey unmanned aircraft solutions for single aircraft and multi-ship operations, providing high-dimensional situational awareness. The company’s C2AI (AI-based command and control) platform is targeted at public safety, defense, and critical infrastructure partners. 
• Titomic – Titomic leads strategic initiatives that harness advanced additive manufacturing technologies to deliver innovative solutions across aerospace, defense, and industrial markets. Titomic Kinetic Fusion, the company’s groundbreaking cold spray additive manufacturing process, is led by Dr. Patti Dare, who collaborates closely with industry partners and customers to align Titomic’s capabilities with real-world applications, ensuring breakthrough performance and value. Her leadership continues to position Titomic at the forefront of next-generation manufacturing. 
• Vivum AI – Vivum AI is a venture-backed software company delivering hardware and software agnostic autonomy that runs on lightweight, low-power processors without the need for GPUs or cloud dependency, using a neuromorphic-inspired approach. Vivum AI’s plug-and-play modules provide resilient, distributed autonomy across land, air, sea, and space, enabling real-time sense decide-act performance at the extreme edge in denied, degraded, or disconnected environments. The result is order-of-magnitude gains in safety, efficiency, and mission assurance with minimal SWaP-c, scalable from COTS platforms to defense programs.

Since September, each has worked in the Accelerator to grow and scale their products for the  defense and commercial markets. The purpose of the Accelerator is to grow the local defense industrial base with the next generation of small businesses focused on technology products.

Three of the five companies are based in Huntsville, and this cohort is focused on developing technology for the Air Force. 

“We are excited for the companies and products featured in this second cohort to complete the program with this demo and pitch finale,” said Erin Koshut, executive director of Cummings Research Park. “All the companies and products selected for the Accelerator program have great potential to bring significant capabilities to our warfighters.”

The CRP DefenseTech Accelerator is a joint effort with the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber, Cummings Research Park, and Treble One. 

“This CRP cohort reflects exactly why Huntsville is becoming one of the most dynamic innovation hubs in the country,” said Brien House, executive director of the CRP DefenseTech Accelerator. “These founders are building technologies with the potential to deliver impactful capability to our nation’s warfighters.”  

The Accelerator uses the Innovate Alabama Tax Credit program, which is a statewide initiative where Alabama companies and individuals with significant tax liability can allocate 50% of their taxes to stay local. This includes the Alabama income tax, state insurance premium tax, state public utility license tax, and state portion of the financial institution excise tax.  

The third cohort will begin late next spring. For information, contact Erin Koshut at 256-535-2086 or [email protected].