Follow the OTA bread crumbs, and you find Unicorns

This morning, a brilliant colleague of mine who works at an unbelievably promising startup said he was looking into APFIT funding as an opportunity to grow their Defense business. APFIT (stands for “Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies”) is a DoD pilot program intended to shorten the timeline between the development of innovation and the fielding of it across the military services. The DoD announced on May 22, 2023 that Congress appropriated $150 million for APFIT in FY23.

I didn’t see any of the major corporate successes across the Defense sector on the list of companies who have received APFIT funding. However, if you follow large contract award announcements, all of them have received Other Transaction Authority (OTA) awards:

SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Shield AI, Epirus

Anduril’s OTA award, made in 2021 by the Defense Innovation Unit, was $99M over 5 years, and allows Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps customers to buy Anduril technology.

Compare Anduril’s $99M to the total amount of funding appropriated through APFIT, and I know where I would focus my business development efforts.

For the technology companies that classify as “non-traditionals” according to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), OTAs can be a potential bridge between you and Defense customers. Just follow in the footsteps of the SpaceX’s…

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