Forge Institute Announces Phoenix Xcelerator Participants

A file photo of Lee Watson, founder of The Forge Institute

Forge Institute officially launched its Phoenix Xcelerator program Wednesday evening during an event at its downtown Little Rock office, bringing together entrepreneurs, government officials, military personnel and community leaders.

Forge Institute CEO Lee Watson kicked off the event by discussing the institute’s current projects and how they impact cybersecurity and defense in the state.

He mentioned Forge’s recently-announced partnership with the U.S. Air Force, stating that it is “going to support programs like Phoenix, because it can bring some stuff to the table, funded by the Air Force, that is directly applicable to the to the startups that we have, igniting innovation.”

Also in terms of the Air Force partnership, Watson said the work takes AI, cyber and critical infrastructure conversations to the “next level.” He said Forge’s relationships with the Air Force labs means it can help the academic community and the small business community access intellectual property held by the labs, as well as licensing agreements “and some other stuff.”

As far as the Phoenix Xcelerator, Watson said it’s a strategic and tactical program, designed to grow the selected startups as much as possible throughout the 12-week program.

It’s specifically for early-stage companies in the aerospace and defense sectors. It’s partially funded by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC), as well as the Walton Family Foundation, which Watson announced at the event.

“This program is about equipping the warfighter,” Watson told attendees. “We care about growing companies and being investor-ready, but the first objective is building something that directly supports the warfighter. This is about increasing lethality, enhancing survivability and improving operational efficiency.”

Other speakers at the event were Esperanza Massana-Crane, director of small business and entrepreneurship development at the AEDC, James Hendren, chairman of the board and co-founder of the Venture Center, and Walter Burgess, who will be the entrepreneur-in-residence for the accelerator.

After his speech, Burgess went on to announce the nine defense startups that were selected for the accelerator. They are:

• Mod Tech Labs of Austin – AI and automation tools designed to streamline content creation, optimize production pipelines and enhance 3D workflows
• TaterTek of Des Arc – Propulsion system that enables a single hydro-terrain vehicle to travel on land, afloat and underwater to reach previously prohibitive locations
• Orion Edge Group of Lakewood, Colorado – Wearable, individual electromagnetic warfare solutions that disrupt and deny the communications and navigation networks of adversary robotics on the battlefield
• FirewatchAI of Fayetteville – AI and additive material manufacturing in defense applications
• Gentry Professional Services of Little Rock (soon relocating to Fayetteville) – Engineering solutions to enhance customer capabilities
• NextGen Lights of Fayetteville – Lights powered by lasers for long range night visibility for naval ships
• Foresight Engineering of Rogers – Advanced imaging solutions for small arms rifle scopes and hunting scopes
• Soteria Battery Innovation Group of Greenville, South Carolina – Addressing thermal runaway at the root cause — the internal short circuit that releases the electrical energy
• FOG Systems of Fayetteville – Portable and offline AI models to assist in land navigation guidance in foreign territories

“This is real stuff,” Watson said. “This is not the next app where you can share what you had for lunch. Nobody’s going to die when they see that. If we don’t get the right solution to the warfighter, their life could be in jeopardy. So it’s a whole other bar that these entrepreneurs have to work on.”

Burgess said the Phoenix Xcelerator is collaborating with “a couple of great defense companies” that have allowed Forge to access their facilities during the program.

Watson said that the companies who do well in the program will have the opportunity to present at the Mid-America Aerospace & Defense Summit in August. The accelerator will culminate with a demo day on May 29, where participating companies will showcase their progress and innovations.

Watson also said that none of the companies “deserve” to pitch at the accelerator’s demo day, but that the startups must “earn it.”

“We have some very early ideas in this particular accelerator, all the way to people that are currently doing field tests,” Watson said during his opening speech. Orion Edge Group was unable to attend the launch event because the company is “actively testing” its solution with the special operations community.

Watson also emphasized the economic importance of supporting startups, noting that “95% of net new jobs come from startups, specifically companies less than five years old.”

And according to the AEDC, aerospace and defense exports made up more than 13% of the state’s total exports in 2023, making it the state’s leading export.