Cynnovative, LLC

Cynnovative, LLC, an Arlington-based small business, operates as a prime contractor (92% of recent awards) specializing in advanced research and development for defense and intelligence agencies, with primary focus on cyber operations, artificial intelligence, data science, and rapid prototyping. The company is a for-profit Subchapter S corporation that competes across both small-business set-asides and full-and-open procurements, with recent prime awards split between Total Small Business set-asides and unrestricted competition. Cynnovative's capability portfolio centers on DARPA-class research domains: cyber infrastructure evasion and signature management, AI-based decision support systems, biosurveillance diagnostics, and multi-domain systems innovation. Representative prime work includes the $29.2 million SMOKE (Signature Management Using Operational Knowledge and Environments) program with DARPA (awarded September 2022, cost-plus-fixed-fee, completion July 2026) for counter-attribution cyber infrastructure development; the $10.8 million MATTERHORN definitive contract with DARPA (awarded August 2024, cost-plus-fixed-fee, completion February 2028); and the $2.786 million WHIRL (Workable Hierarchical Impersonation Using Reinforcement Learning) contract with DARPA (awarded August 2023, total small business set-aside, completion June 2026). Cynnovative also holds a $900 million multiple-award IDIQ with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Architecture and Integration Directorate (awarded June 2023, completion November 2027) for briefing, advisory support, multi-domain systems development, and rapid prototyping.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted toward the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which accounts for nine awards valued at $52.8 million combined potential value across nine prime contracts and one OTA. The Department of the Air Force, represented primarily by the $900 million AFLCMC IDIQ, dominates potential value and shifts the dollar profile dramatically — the Air Force concentration reaches $900 million (94% of combined potential value) while DARPA remains the award-volume leader at nine contracts. The Department of the Navy Information Warfare Systems Command placed one award worth $10 million for the MESSINA program (gene-editing diagnostics research, awarded December 2021, completion December 2023). The DOD Missile Defense Agency issued a single $149.8 thousand SBIR Phase I contract (awarded November 2022, completion July 2023). Activity has slowed in recent years — three awards in 2022 and 2023, two in 2024, one in 2025, and one in early 2026 — and three awards totaling $41.8 million in combined potential value face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating moderate recompete exposure. Cynnovative subcontracts minimally; the source names one sub-award under RTX BBN Technologies on SOFIA Services (March 2024). The vendor's research orientation surfaces strongly across category concentration: ten awards fall under NAICS Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences, with PSC coding split across National Defense R&D Services (basic, applied, and experimental development) and general science and technology R&D, confirming the advanced-research and prototype-development footprint.