HUNTSVILLE – And then there were five.
From a field of 20 applicants, five companies were chosen for the second cohort of the CRP DefenseTech Accelerator, an effort among the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber, Cummings Research Park, and Treble One.
The five companies selected are FC Renew, MESO Space, SkyfireAI, Titomic, and Vivum AI.
“We selected these companies because we see near-term potential to solve real problems across the Department of the Air Force and the broader DoD,” said Treble One’s Alabama Accelerators Director Brien House. “I can’t wait to get to work with them.”
The cohort, which wraps up in December, is designed to help grow and scale each company’s products in the defense and commercial markets. The accelerator’s purpose is to grow the defense industrial base with the next generation of small businesses focused on technology products.
“Treble One is grateful to the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber and our sponsors for supporting the CRP DefenseTech Accelerator program in Huntsville,” said Brian Bullerman, Treble One’s co-owner and managing partner. “This initiative empowers local companies to grow and market their innovative products to the Air Force and the broader DoD marketplace.
“It’s a win-win: Huntsville businesses can expand and diversify, while the Air Force gains access to cutting-edge technologies that enhance warfighter capabilities.”
Innovate Alabama and three companies are helping support the cohort: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, Regions Bank, and Synovus.
The cohort will be housed at the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s Invention to Innovation Center (I²C).
The Accelerator utilizes 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.
This is the second DefenseTech Accelerator cohort to launch this year. CRP and Treble One will open applications for the third cohort in early 2026 and begin working in early spring.
A recruitment drive for tax credit donors for future cohorts will start early next year. For information, contact Erin Koshut, executive director of Cummings Research Park at 256-535-2086 or [email protected].
This year’s selections
- 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.
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