NavalX’s Inland Empire Tech Bridge Crucible Programs, powered by FedTech, are regional multi-year innovation programs supporting entrepreneurs, inventors, and startups who are looking to develop and expand dual-use national security technologies. Now entering its second year, Crucible has expanded from Southern California to the country’s Pacific Rim to include all of California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii.

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One of the core programs, Crucible Ignitor, unites laboratory technologies with diverse innovators to promote technology commercialization and solve Naval and regional problems. Over 60 aspiring entrepreneurs applied to this year’s cohort, with the top 30 accepted and equally split across 10 teams. These teams, who are building startups from the ground-up, are solving critical dual-use challenges across metrology, telecommunications, robotics, supply chain, energy, sustainable infrastructure, and water technologies. Teams gain access to coaches, mentors, inventors, advisors, and more during the program, accelerating their commercialization journey. The program kicked off in December 2024 and will culminate with an in-person showcase at the Inland Empire Innovation Summit in April 2025. 

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The follow-on to Ignitor is Crucible Accelerator, a learning program with workshops and mentorship that supports startups by fostering connections and building greater awareness of the defense market, in addition to building a relationship with the Navy. This year’s program received more than 60 startup applications, with the top 15 accepted into the cohort. These startups, who have products and services ready to be introduced to the market, are solving critical challenges across data analytics, metrology, telecommunications, robotics, supply chain, sustainable infrastructure, and injury prevention and safety. 

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One of Crucible’s strongest anchors is its ecosystem, which provides a strong pipeline of participants and startups who are funneled through the programs. Two teams who participated in the inaugural cohort of Crucible Ignitor, Super Foam Corp. and Aurelius Industries, have been accepted into the second iteration of the Crucible Accelerator. Super Foam provides environmentally-friendly, high performance foam to save individuals from head injury and trauma. Super Foam recently took first place at UC Riverside's OASIS Pitch Competition in December 2024, earning $75k in funding. Their winnings were doubled after receiving an additional $75,000 match from the Assistant Deputy Director of Innovation from the California Governor’s Office, resulting in a total award of $150,000. Aurelius Industries revolutionizes real-time multi-sensor perception harnessing cutting-edge AI-driven algorithms to empower commercial and defense industries, overcoming bandwidth and connectivity challenges to enhance operational efficiency, safety, and decision-making in complex environments.

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If you would like to get involved in Crucible, please contact crucible@fedtech.io. 

To register to attend the 2025 Inland Empire Innovation Summit, click here.