Three Startups Take Top Honors in Pitch Competition at AFCEA’s TechNet Emergence 2025
The innovation tech community turned its attention Tuesday to three breakout companies as Saltenna, Space Phoenix and RapidFlight were crowned winners of the venture capital pitch competition at AFCEA International’s TechNet Emergence 2025 conference.
The three early- and growth-stage companies had four minutes each to pitch their breakthrough technologies to a panel of seasoned investors and venture capitalists in hopes of delivering the perfect pitch and garnering accolades. Out of a dynamic and visionary pool of six contenders who presented during the first day of the two-day conference, the three companies stood out for their transformative potential and strategic relevance to national security missions.
"These companies represent the vanguard of mission-critical and high-potential innovation," said AFCEA President and CEO, Lt. Gen. Susan S. Lawrence, USA (Ret.). "By providing a platform for them to connect directly with decision-makers, investors and government integrators, TechNet Emergence helps accelerate the integration of commercial ingenuity into government missions."
Big Idea CONNECTpreneur, led by founder S. Tien Wong, helped manage the competition. The organization helps early-stage companies with many of their needs, from capital to workforce development, customers, vendors, partners, product development, marketing and more.
For their pitches, each company delivered a compelling vision backed by cutting-edge technology.
First place winner was Saltenna, which impressed the panel with its next-generation antenna systems that promise enhanced reliability for communications in harsh, otherwise impenetrable or contested environments. Its technologies are already gaining traction among defense customers looking to ensure connectivity in multidomain operations.
“Saltenna is honored to be recognized as a pitch winner at the Venture Capital Forum of TechNet Emergence 2025,” said CEO Dennis Defensor. “We’re especially proud to receive this distinction from AFCEA, as it highlights the mission-critical value of our Plasmonics wireless technology.
"In addition to its commercial applications, Plasmonics enables wireless communication in environments where traditional signals fail—underwater, underground, through snow and ice, through dense jungles and even through metal structures. This breakthrough wireless communications technology has the potential to transform how our warfighters and first responders stay connected in the most challenging conditions.”
Second place accolades went to Space Phoenix, which showcased its in-orbit service architecture, emphasizing on-demand satellite deployment and space debris mitigation. The startup’s scalable approach to space logistics addresses growing concerns about orbital congestion and the need for rapid space asset maneuverability.
“We’re here to solve the capacity issue. The government, the DOD and [federal civilian agencies] such as NASA and others just need to get lots of stuff into space and then back, and we’re here to solve that,” Co-founder and CEO Andrew Parlock said in an interview with SIGNAL Media. “Winning the pitch competition is another one of those ‘bona fides’ that people say, ‘yeah, let me take a good, hard look at Space Phoenix as an investable company.”
The company recently competed in two competitions, including its successful showing at TechNet Emergence, and won both times. “We kind of feel like our messaging is right,” Parlock said of the significance of the wins. “Now it’s about persistence, persistence, persistence.”
Participation at conferences such as TechNet Emergence proves incredibly valuable for the future of these high-potential startups. A key endeavor for Space Phoenix is Project 100, which involves launching a spacecraft, completing a mission, returning, upgrading the payload, relaunching the spacecraft and returning again, all within 100 days. “That will set the standard for the industry,” Parlock said. “What an event like this does for me is I get to communicate that vision and mission to a government audience that I just wouldn’t otherwise get to.”
Coming in third place is RapidFlight, which demonstrated its agile approach to unmanned systems design. Offering modular, mission-adaptable drones, RapidFlight enables faster prototyping and deployment cycles—a critical capability for defense and government agencies facing urgent and evolving mission needs.
Coming out on top of such pitch sessions validates the companies’ hard work, said RapidFlight’s Managing Director Brandon Smith. “Fundraising is hard. It’s nice to hear validation from a crew of professionals. This is a great audience to get in front of, not just on the venture side, but on the community front.”
For the winning companies, the recognition is more than symbolic. Selection opens doors to strategic partnerships, venture capital attention and sustained collaboration with AFCEA’s expansive network of government, industry and academia stakeholders.
The six pitching companies at TechNet Emergence 2025 included:
TechNet Emergence is organized by AFCEA and supported by the U.S. Department of Defense, The MITRE Corporation and the National Science Foundation. SIGNAL Media is the official media of AFCEA International.
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