• E-Newsletter

Are you interested in finding out about SCOUT, the Fairfax County-based company that Eric Ingram founded in 2019 with the mission to enable a new era of space safety and transparency? Ingram will be the guest speaker in the Fairfax County EDA’s next Entrepreneurship 101 webinar on September 13. During the webinar, Ingram will describe why and how he founded the rapidly growing company. Whether you’re interested in starting a space company – or any type of company —  Ingram will offer valuable tips for entrepreneurial success. Click here to register.

Ingram is also among the featured guests on a recent episode of PBS’s Behind the Wings which focuses on “How is a growing space economy changing what is possible in space?” In the episode, Ingram talks about AstroAccess, an organization that advances disability inclusion in space. Click here to watch the episode.

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Fairfax County EDA visits Israel to foster business expansion opportunities to the U.S.

After a more than two-year hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA) returned to Israel for a market research trip in June 2022. Led by Asher Kotz, FCEDA’s Business Investment Manager for Cybersecurity and Israel, the purpose of the trip was to promote Fairfax County as a favorable point of entry for Israeli companies to expand to the United States.

“In 2022, the U.S. market represents an important destination for many Israeli companies and for their growth strategy. With direct flight service between Tel Aviv and Washington Dulles International Airport, Fairfax County and the Northern Virginia region is an ideal location of Israeli companies to expand their operations,” said Asher Kotz. “And with the continued strength of the U.S.-Israel economic alliance, and a wide-range of sectors for collaboration among the two countries, Northern Virginia is the major U.S. hub for companies in industry sectors such as cybersecurity, smart city, AI, cloud and data centers, homeland security and defense, and sustainability technologies.”

Click here to read more.

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Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeffrey C. McKay presented a proclamation on August 2, passed 10-0 by Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, to the Northern Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce recognizing August as Black Business Month in Fairfax County. Fairfax County is home to 639 Black-owned employer firms. This is the highest number of any locality in Virginia. Together, these businesses generate more than $1.8 billion in annual revenue and employ over 11,000 people in Fairfax County. Click here to find out more about National Black Business Month.

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Weekly Business News Digest

Army collaboration: Tysons-based SpaceLink was selected by the U.S. Army to participate in studies to enhance a space communications network. Through a cooperative research and development agreement, SpaceLink’s staff will team with the Army Space and Missile Defense Command Technical Center to enable a communications network that is durable and cuts down on lags between endpoints. Dave Bettinger, CEO of SpaceLink, noted that the collaboration will help the company align its strategies and projects with the Army’s mission. Additionally, he said the organizations will bring benefits to both the military and commercial sectors by “sharing facilities, intellectual property and expertise.” ExecutiveBiz has more.

Catching fireflies: Falls Church area-based Northrop Grumman and Texas-based Firefly Aerospace announced  that they will work together to develop a new first stage for Northrop’s Antares launch vehicle as well as a future medium-lift rocket, SpaceNews reported. The new version of the Antares, called the Antares 330, will feature a first stage using seven Miranda engines under development by Firefly. The stage will also use Firefly composites for its structure and tanks. The vehicle is designed to launch from the current pad at Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport that has hosted all previous Antares launches.

Commercial space collaboration: Centreville-based Parsons entered into an agreement with Colorado-based sensing and analytics company Aurora Insight to collaborate on commercial space research and development to provide next-general capabilities for the domestic and international military sector, ExecutiveBiz reported. The companies will combine thehttps://aurorainsight.com/ir expertise in data collection and analysis, algorithmic processing and analytic interpretation to develop new methods of yielding actionable intelligence on radio frequency spectrum and wireless network infrastructure. Over the past 18 months, both companies have teamed up on several efforts to advance access to RF spectrum information and develop next-generation hybrid commercial and government space capabilities.

Space pioneer rides: Tysons-based Spire Global will host a second Earth-imaging payload for Hancom InSpace, which became the first private South Korean company to operate a commercial satellite mission earlier this year, SpaceNews reported. Hancom is a spin-off from South Korea’s space agency and specializes in image analysis for tracking vehicles and changes in infrastructure and the environment. “Hancom is a pioneer in the South Korean space industry as the first private company to deploy satellites, and we’re thrilled to work with them to further build out their constellation,” said Joel Spark, Co-Founder and General Manager, Space Services, Spire.

Global chart toppers: Four Northern Virginia-based companies landed spots on Fortune Magazine’s Global 500 list, which was released last week and ranks the world’s 500 largest corporations by total revenue. The highest-ranked Virginia company on this year’s list is Tysons-based Federal Home Loan Mortgage Co. (“Freddie Mac”). Also ranking on the list are General Dynamics (Reston); Northrop Grumman (Falls Church area); and Capital One (Tysons). Two other companies — Raytheon Technologies and Boeing — that made this year’s Fortune Global 500 list are in the midst of moving their global headquarters to Arlington County, Va. And while Amazon, which placed at no. 2 on the list, is headquartered in Seattle, the e-retailer is building its $2.5 billion HQ2 East Coast headquarters in Arlington County. Virginia Business has more.

Transformational platform: Farnborough, U.K. headquartered QinetiQ Group’s U.S. arm in Lorton agreed to buy Tysons- and Reston-based Avantus Federal from NewSpring Holdings for $590 million to expand its U.S. footprint and establish a growth platform to address the defense and intelligence challenges facing government clients, according to GovConWire.  QinetiQUS said it expects the acquisition to close by the end of calendar year 2022. “This acquisition is a transformational platform that delivers on our growth strategy of building a disruptive mid-tier defense and intelligence company,” said Shawn Purvis, president and CEO of Qinetic US.

Cloud connection: Tysons-based Booz Allen Hamilton and Fulton, Md.-based cloud software provider Kion agreed to partner to provide government customers with cloud governance and management capabilities. “This partnership combines Booz Allen’s approach to technical transformation and acceleration with Kion’s best-in-class cloud enablement platform,” Dan Tucker, senior vice president at Booz Allen and leader of the firm’s cloud and data engineering solutions for citizen services, said. Kion’s cloud enablement platform helps organizations streamline governance and management activities by delivering automation, compliance and financial management capabilities, reported ExecutiveBiz.

To the edge and beyond: Unmanned and autonomous technology company Edge Autonomy, which is headquartered in San Luis Obispo, Calif., and has key support offices in Herndon, entered an agreement to acquire alternative fuel producer Adaptive Energy. With the business move, Edge Autonomy added a capability to manufacture solid oxide fuel cells, which enable their team to power unmanned aerial vehicles, among other usages, ExecutiveGov reported. John Purvis, CEO of Edge Autonomy, explained that the company has been utilizing AE’s solid oxide fuel cell technology for multiple years and said they are excited to amplify the latter organization’s research and development efforts in order to discover new pathways toward efficient and multipliable autonomous vehicle functionality.

Bolstering communications market capabilities: Transaction Network Services (TNS), a Reston-based provider of networks and services used in transactions and the exchange of information, acquired Silicon Valley-based AGNITY Global, a developer of intelligent business communication applications and infrastructure.  TNS said the move bolsters its communications market capabilities through AGNITY’s channel partnerships business model that spans more than 12 countries. Founded in 2008, AGNITY powers the networks of many service providers through its communication application server. Potomac Tech Wire picked up the release.

Job ops take flight: Boeing is hosting career fairs in Fairfax (Aug. 15), Herndon (Aug. 12) and Arlington (Aug. 11) to fill multiple positions as the airplane manufacturer establishes its global headquarters in Northern Virginia. In a news release, Boeing said that in addition to designating Northern Virginia as its new headquarters, the company “plans to develop a research and technology hub in the area to harness and attract engineering and technical capabilities.” WJLA has more on the hiring events.

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Contract Wins

Perspecta Enterprise Solutions, a subsidiary of Peraton, won a 10-year, $2 billion contract to expedite and strengthen the Defense Health Agency’s military health database. ExecutiveGov

Peraton obtained a $850 million contract from the U.S. Department of Department to provide agile analytic platforms and data management solutions. WashingtonExec

General Dynamics Information Technology (Falls Church area) obtained a $267 million Guard Enterprise Cyber Operations Support contract to support the Army National Guard. WashingtonExec

HII’s Mission Technologies (Tysons) won a $127 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense  to support research, development, test, and evaluation of emergency technologies on behalf of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. Military Embedded Systems