Nexcepta Inc.

Nexcepta Inc., a woman-owned small business based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, delivers artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced communications research and development to Department of Defense agencies as a prime contractor exclusively under total small business set-asides and full-and-open competition. The company operates across SBIR Phase I and Phase II, STTR Phase I and Phase II, and Other Transaction Agreement vehicles, with all 23 recent federal awards held as prime contracts or grants — no subcontractor footprint.

Nexcepta's customer concentration sits heavily with defense research agencies. The Department of the Army leads by award count and potential value (7 awards, $6.2 million combined potential value), followed by the Missile Defense Agency (5 awards, $1.8 million), the Office of Naval Research (3 awards, $1.4 million), the Army Materiel Command Research Development and Engineering Command (3 awards, $620 thousand), and the Air Force Research Laboratory (3 awards, $440 thousand). These five customer organizations account for 91% of recent awards and 96% of combined potential value. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) anchors a single $1.8 million OTA award for the Language Models for Veteran Suicide Prevention program, demonstrating Nexcepta's reach into highest-risk defense innovation outside the traditional SBIR/STTR pipeline.

Recent capability work centers on AI and machine learning for military communications, autonomous systems, and veteran mental health support. Representative prime awards include a $1.36 million Army STTR Phase II definitive contract for underlay communications with wide SINR range (ultimate completion April 2028), a $1.8 million DARPA OTA for language model-based veteran suicide prevention (completion April 2029), a $1.999992 million Army SBIR Phase 2 effort (completion October 2027), a $900 thousand Office of Naval Research definitive contract for DRAGN (Dynamic and Resilient Resource Allocation Using Graph Neural Networks for Software-Defined Networking, completion June 2027), and a $1.899995 million Army SBIR Phase II for AI/ML technology development (completion October 2025). Nexcepta also holds a $151 billion multiple-award IDIQ with the Missile Defense Agency for the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) program running through December 2035, though only a $500 delivery order has been placed to date.

The company's award portfolio clusters in PSC codes for applied research, experimental development, and basic research in national defense R&D services — 21 of 23 awards fall under NAICS 541710 (Research and Development in Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences). Activity accelerated from 2 awards in 2022 to 8 in 2024, with 4 awards in 2025 and 6 in 2026 year-to-date. Four awards (combined potential value $4.3 million) face ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months and represent recompete exposure. Nexcepta also holds a $149,996 cooperative agreement recipient award from the U.S. Army (West Point Military Academy) under the Basic Scientific Research program (CFDA 12.431) for Cyber Triage and Remediation Using Agentic Models, with performance through June 2027.