DARPA Commercial Accelerators

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR QUOTES OR PROPOSALS. NO QUOTES OR PROPOSALS ARE TO BE SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO THIS NOTICE.

This synopsis is issued by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for information and planning purposes and to allow industry the opportunity to submit questions, as well as promote competition.

Background

Since 1958, DARPA has held to a singular and enduring mission: To make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security. Ensuring that the technology developed under DARPA programs make a lasting positive impact requires technology transition to the Department of Defense (DoD), the U.S. Government, Allied Partners, and the commercial sector. 

The mission of DARPA’s Commercial Strategy is to accelerate DARPA’s R&D technology into future products, services, and capabilities for both the DoD and commercial markets, thus providing rapid transition program opportunities by:

• Tapping into top tier commercial and entrepreneurial talent.
• Leveraging existing regional business and economic development ecosystems with domain expertise of relevance to both DoD and commercial customers.
• Connecting DARPA-funded teams with non-adversarial private investment capital and U.S. corporations.
• Providing additional training, mentoring, coaching, techno-economic market mapping, financial analysis, deal sourcing, and early-stage company building (pre-seed).
• Leveraging unique regional capabilities, including universities, labs, and demonstration sites.
• Developing strategies and approaches to de-risk the highest market inefficiencies that prevent DARPA-funded technologies from transitioning.
• Ensuring DARPA technology that secures economic and national security is available in the future, with zero adversarial capital.
• Addressing and de-risking the highest market inefficiencies that prevent DARPA-funded technologies from transitioning.

Commercial Strategy intends to achieve these goals by conducting the foundational entrepreneurial research required to design technologies of relevance and value to the market, formulate strong go-to-market strategies, and increase the likelihood that DARPA performers secure U.S. investment, grow domestically, and provide new capabilities for national defense.

The expertise and experience required to support DARPA’s Commercial Strategy programs and other transition activities include:

• Early-stage company building (pre-seed, seed, Series A), entrepreneurial training, translational research, venture investment deal sourcing, evaluation and execution of deals, and licensing agreement drafting and negotiation.
• A broad network relevant to transitioning technology to U.S. Government users such as systems integrators, testing and evaluation labs, and U.S. Government acquisition programs.
• A broad network of high-tech private equity or venture capital investors, to conduct due diligence in identifying investors and corporations whose association with the transition of DARPA technologies could be problematic to national security.

Acquisition Strategy

DARPA’s objective is to have approximately four to six qualified Commercial Accelerator providers to advise and assist DARPA’s Commercial Strategy team. Multiple providers will ensure the best fit for each performer, foster competition, and infuse business development capability.  Each Accelerator will provide senior commercial advisors, with technological and industry proficiency to conduct ongoing, iterative assessments of the technical solutions' commercial viability and go-to-market strategies, identification of entrepreneurial talent, connections to customers, and private investment capital.

The anticipated acquisition strategy, which is subject to change, is to establish multiple-award Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) with a period of performance of three (3) years.  The anticipated aggregate ceiling amount is $25 million.  The anticipated aggregate volume of individual Firm Fixed Price (FFP) call orders to support various performers’ transition activities is 60 to 100 per year, ranging from $50k to $250k each. 

BPA holders will need to be registered in SAM.gov prior to receiving a BPA. Any interested entity not already registered in SAM.gov is highly encouraged to start their registration as soon as possible by visiting the registration link at SAM.gov | Entity Registrations. For easy reference, the SAM.gov Entity Registration Checklist is attached to this notice.

This pre-solicitation synopsis is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government, nor will the Government pay for any information submitted in response.  The Government may not respond to questions/concerns submitted. The Government may use any information received to finalize the solicitation as necessary.

All comments or questions shall be submitted electronically via email to DARPA_Commercial_Accelerators@darpa.mil.  Please reference “HR0011-24-Q-0002” in the subject of the email.

If a solicitation is released, then it and any additional documents will be available on SAM.gov.  It is the offeror's responsibility to monitor this website for the release of the solicitation and amendments (if any). Potential offerors will be responsible for downloading their own copy of the solicitation and amendments, if any.

Update 3/27/2024:

DARPA Commercial Accelerators slides attached.

DARPA intends to award BPAs to Commercial Accelerators that, together, they will provide the best coverage across DoD's critical technology areas as well as diverse coverage of startup ecosystems.  Any one accelerator is not expected to specialize in all the technology areas nor are they expected to have a presence in multiple startup ecosystems.

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E) has identified fourteen critical technology areas under three categories as follows:

Seed Areas of Emerging Opportunity

• Biotechnology
• Quantum Science
• Future Generation Wireless Technology (FutureG)
• Advanced Materials

Effective Adoption Areas – where there is existing vibrant commercial sector activity

• Trusted Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Autonomy
• Integrated Network Systems-of-Systems
• Microelectronics
• Space Technology
• Renewable Energy Generation and Storage
• Advanced Computing and Software
• Human-Machine Interfaces

Defense-Specific Areas

• Directed Energy
• Hypersonics
• Integrated Sensing and Cyber

According to Startup Genome’s The Global Startup Ecosystems Report 2021, the Top Ranked U.S. Startup Ecosystems recognized globally are as follows:

• Silicon Valley
• New York City
• Boston
• Los Angeles
• Seattle
• Washington DC
• Chicago
• Austin
• San Diego
• Atlanta
• Denver/Boulder
• Philadelphia
• Salt Lake-Provo
• Dallas

***The information provided in this pre-solicitation synopsis is intended to help characterize what we anticipate will be a successful commercial accelerator, however the evaluation criteria for BPA award have not been finalized and may deviate from the information presented here.

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR QUOTES OR PROPOSALS. NO QUOTES OR PROPOSALS ARE TO BE SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO THIS NOTICE.

This synopsis is issued by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for information and planning purposes and to allow industry the opportunity to submit questions, as well as promote competition.

Background

Since 1958, DARPA has held to a singular and enduring mission: To make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security. Ensuring that the technology developed under DARPA programs make a lasting positive impact requires technology transition to the Department of Defense (DoD), the U.S. Government, Allied Partners, and the commercial sector. 

The mission of DARPA’s Commercial Strategy is to accelerate DARPA’s R&D technology into future products, services, and capabilities for both the DoD and commercial markets, thus providing rapid transition program opportunities by:

• Tapping into top tier commercial and entrepreneurial talent.
• Leveraging existing regional business and economic development ecosystems with domain expertise of relevance to both DoD and commercial customers.
• Connecting DARPA-funded teams with non-adversarial private investment capital and U.S. corporations.
• Providing additional training, mentoring, coaching, techno-economic market mapping, financial analysis, deal sourcing, and early-stage company building (pre-seed).
• Leveraging unique regional capabilities, including universities, labs, and demonstration sites.
• Developing strategies and approaches to de-risk the highest market inefficiencies that prevent DARPA-funded technologies from transitioning.
• Ensuring DARPA technology that secures economic and national security is available in the future, with zero adversarial capital.
• Addressing and de-risking the highest market inefficiencies that prevent DARPA-funded technologies from transitioning.

Commercial Strategy intends to achieve these goals by conducting the foundational entrepreneurial research required to design technologies of relevance and value to the market, formulate strong go-to-market strategies, and increase the likelihood that DARPA performers secure U.S. investment, grow domestically, and provide new capabilities for national defense.

The expertise and experience required to support DARPA’s Commercial Strategy programs and other transition activities include:

• Early-stage company building (pre-seed, seed, Series A), entrepreneurial training, translational research, venture investment deal sourcing, evaluation and execution of deals, and licensing agreement drafting and negotiation.
• A broad network relevant to transitioning technology to U.S. Government users such as systems integrators, testing and evaluation labs, and U.S. Government acquisition programs.
• A broad network of high-tech private equity or venture capital investors, to conduct due diligence in identifying investors and corporations whose association with the transition of DARPA technologies could be problematic to national security.

Acquisition Strategy

DARPA’s objective is to have four to six qualified Commercial Accelerator providers to advise and assist DARPA’s Commercial Strategy team. Multiple providers will ensure the best fit for each performer, foster competition, and infuse business development capability.  Each Accelerator will provide senior commercial advisors, with technological and industry proficiency to conduct ongoing, iterative assessments of the technical solutions' commercial viability and go-to-market strategies, identification of entrepreneurial talent, connections to customers, and private investment capital.

The anticipated acquisition strategy, which is subject to change, is to establish multiple-award Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) with a period of performance of three (3) years.  The anticipated aggregate ceiling amount is $25 million.  The anticipated aggregate volume of individual Firm Fixed Price (FFP) call orders to support various performers’ transition activities is 60 to 100 per year, ranging from $50k to $250k each. 

BPA holders will need to be registered in SAM.gov prior to receiving a BPA. Any interested entity not already registered in SAM.gov is highly encouraged to start their registration as soon as possible by visiting the registration link at SAM.gov | Entity Registrations. For easy reference, the SAM.gov Entity Registration Checklist is attached to this notice.

This pre-solicitation synopsis is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government, nor will the Government pay for any information submitted in response.  The Government may not respond to questions/concerns submitted. The Government may use any information received to finalize the solicitation as necessary.

All comments or questions shall be submitted electronically via email to DARPA_Commercial_Accelerators@darpa.mil.  Please reference “HR0011-24-Q-0002” in the subject of the email.

If a solicitation is released, then it and any additional documents will be available on SAM.gov.  It is the offeror's responsibility to monitor this website for the release of the solicitation and amendments (if any). Potential offerors will be responsible for downloading their own copy of the solicitation and amendments, if any.