CATALYST ACCELERATOR CONCLUDES FIRST INVESTMENT READINESS BOOT CAMP WITH COMPANY SHOWCASE
Two-week program ends with Company Showcase featuring pitches and networking in Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs, Colorado, Oct. 29, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Catalyst Accelerator concluded its Investment Readiness Boot Camp (CAIRB) on October 23, 2026, following a Company Showcase on October 22 at the Catalyst Campus for Technology and Innovation (CCTI) in Colorado Springs. The two-week, in-person program, powered by the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Warfare Directorate (AFRL/RJ), was the first Boot Camp of its kind for the Accelerator, and five dual-use, space-focused companies were competitively selected to participate.
The Boot Camp was designed to help promising, early-stage space companies that have strong technology, early customers, and traction but need capital to mature their products and scale. Beginning October 12, the cohort met in daily sessions with subject matter experts on investment readiness and strategy, scaling, financial planning, and pitch curation. They also met one-on-one with these subject matter experts to receive guidance on their business strategies and refine their data room materials. Ultimately, the companies left with the connections and resources they needed to sharpen their path toward investment.
The Boot Camp culminated in the Company Showcase, which brought together approximately 55 to 60 attendees from the Colorado defense innovation community, including investor firms, government representatives, and strategic partners. It was designed to be more intimate than the Accelerator’s traditional Demo Days. Private invitations went out to early-stage defense investors and strategic partners across Colorado and New Mexico before the event opened to the public. The Showcase began with welcomes from representatives of CCTI, the Accelerator, and AFRL, followed by a keynote from Maj Patrick Whitty, Private Capital & International Ecosystem Lead at SpaceWERX, who shared his perspective on the importance of investing in space startups. Each company then shared a five-minute investment pitch, and a networking happy hour followed, with each company hosting a booth to talk with attendees.
“Our programs have long helped companies develop their business and understand their government customers. We built this Boot Camp to help small businesses take the next step toward investment, and we are proud of the work these five founders put in,” said Shae Thomas, Sr. Program Manager of Accelerator Programs at CCTI. “Thank you to our strategic partners at ONE Bow River, to our sponsors, Wells Fargo and TechNomos AI, and to the subject matter experts who shared their time with these companies. Your generosity and expertise made this Boot Camp possible.”
Participating companies in the Investment Readiness Boot Camp are listed below:
Arkwright Space: At Arkwright Space, we build Physical AI for Space: intelligent robots that inspect, repair, and manufacture in orbit, so critical infrastructure keeps working at the point of need and high-value assets can maneuver without regret. Our first product, Horus, is a dual-use, free-flying orbital drone for proximity operations that docks with the assets it serves, diagnoses damage on its own with no ground link and returns to its host to be serviced and upgraded, with defense applications such as secure local micro data centers. We are a Purdue University spin-off flying our first payload in 2027 on the road to autonomous in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing of electronics. Our mission is to accelerate humanity's ability to build, operate, and thrive in space.
Continuum Resources: Continuum Resources is a WOSB/EDWOSB-certified defense technology company with 8+ years of experience delivering mission-critical AI, software, engineering, cybersecurity, and professional education across the national-security ecosystem. Continuum supports Space Systems Command through KBR on the MSEIT program, leads AI efforts within that mission, and serves as a prime contractor to the Missile Defense Agency on SHIELD. We turn firsthand experience solving complex defense missions into proprietary, deployable technologies, including STRATUM, an AI-powered decision-support platform designed to make Analysis of Alternatives and engineering trade studies faster, more rigorous, and auditable. Continuum is building a portfolio of secure AI and software products that transform how defense organizations analyze information, make decisions, and execute critical missions.
https://continuumresourcesllc.com/
Little Place Labs: Little Place Labs delivers near-real-time space insights for dual-use applications by bringing AI to space. Through Orbitfy, our orchestration layer for orbital infrastructure, we turn fragmented satellites, compute, and sensors into a single, federated network. We work with constellation operators and government, defense, and commercial customers to deliver insights that no single satellite or sensor can produce alone, with our technology already proven through multiple in-orbit demonstrations. Our work has been recognized by The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, SXSW, and other leading technology and industry platforms.
Spectronn: Spectronn is building the cognitive nervous system for a world where autonomous systems must think, adapt, and decide with precision and trustworthiness, across every domain, from global commerce to national security. MOSAIC, our breakthrough causal multi-agent AI platform, reasons through uncertainty, eliminates hallucination, and delivers mission-grade decisions at machine speed, while reducing compute requirements by orders of magnitude. Powered by MOSAIC, MaritimeIQ delivers unprecedented situational intelligence across the world's oceans, protecting commercial shipping lanes, port infrastructure, and naval operations from emerging threats in real time. Spectronn is forging the autonomous cognitive infrastructure that will secure global commerce, protect critical assets, and define the battlespaces of tomorrow.
Tempest Droneworx: Tempest Droneworx builds collaborative decision environments that transform overwhelming operational data into coordinated action. As AI creates more data, the limiting factor is no longer collecting information - it's understanding it. Tempest Droneworx addresses this problem through its flagship platform, Harbinger™, a modular, vendor-agnostic geospatial mission command and decision environment. Consisting of four interchangeable functions, Harbinger™ agnostically integrates disparate sensors, autonomously directs heterogeneous fleets of UxVs, orchestrates AI algorithms, and transforms complex data into contextual 3D visualizations. Our platform is built for organizations that protect lives, secure critical assets, and make high-consequence decisions in rapidly changing environments - this includes defense organizations, state and local governments, and critical infrastructure operators that rely on timely, accurate situational awareness. Because our products are modular and sensor-agnostic, the same platform can be rapidly configured for multiple mission sets, enabling us to scale across adjacent markets while leveraging a common technology foundation.
About Catalyst Accelerator
The Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate and United States Space Force's Catalyst Accelerator is a space-focused defense and national security industry accelerator, headquartered on the Catalyst Campus for Technology and Innovation (CCTI) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. CCTI is a collaborative ecosystem where industry, small business, entrepreneurs, startups, government, academia, and investors intersect with Colorado's aerospace and defense industry to create community, spark innovation, and stimulate business growth. The Catalyst Accelerator is a collaborative program hosted by Catalyst Campus for Technology and Innovation (CCTI, a Colorado 501(c)3) in partnership with the United States Space Force, and the Air Force Research Laboratory to provide a robust, mentor-driven curriculum for accelerator teams.
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Allison Boothe Catalyst Accelerator 719-749-8601 Allison.Boothe@CatalystCampus.Org
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