AVP recently announced its investment in Defense Unicorns as part of the company’s $136M Series B.
Defense Unicorns because is rapidly emerging as the default platform for secure software delivery in the most demanding environments on earth – air-gapped, mission-critical defense systems, where failure is not an option and speed increasingly defines strategic advantage. Having met these demands head-on in the U.S. government, founders Rob Slaughter and Jeff McCoy are unparalleled in their ability to scale these capabilities commercially across the defense industrial base.
The problem: Software is central to the West’s strategic and technological advantage, but the way it’s delivered to the military is broken
Modern defense systems are increasingly defined by software and AI. Submarines, aircraft, satellites, and cyber operations depend on code that must be updated securely, frequently, and over decades-long lifecycles. Yet, delivering software inside the Department of War (DoW) remains slow, manual, and fragile.
Most commercial software tools assume always-connected environments. Defense systems do not. Many operate in disconnected or air-gapped settings, under some of the strictest security and compliance requirements in the world. Accreditation processes are complex, point-in-time, and labor-intensive, often stretching deployments from weeks into months, or even years.
The result is a fundamental mismatch: the DoW needs to move faster, but legacy processes, bespoke tooling, and systems-integrator–driven solutions make software delivery costly, brittle, and difficult to scale. At the same time, slow updates and insecure supply chains introduce real operational risk.
The DoW has made software modernization a top priority, but policy alone doesn’t ship software. Defense Unicorns was built to fix that.
Why we’re investing:
- Secure software delivery for defense is a large market with strong and durable tailwind momentum
Software modernization inside the DoW is no longer optional – it is a top-down, bipartisan priority reinforced by executive orders, procurement reform, and sustained budget growth. This creates a massive opportunity for Defense Unicorns. The DoW’s overall IT budget approaches $50bn annually, and Defense Unicorns has also proven its ability to attach directly to long-lived Programs of Record, including multi-decade weapons systems such as the U.S. Navy’s Columbia-class submarine program.
These programs benefit from some of the most stable funding sources in government due to their mission-criticality. Once embedded, trusted technologies become difficult to displace, making Defense Unicorns’ combination of open-source architecture and managed offerings appealing. Importantly, the DoW’s shift toward Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) procurement and DevSecOps-driven delivery strongly favors commercial platforms like Defense Unicorns that can operate securely across classified, disconnected, and edge environments.
- Defense Unicorns delivers security and compliance at the highest levels, while driving real, measurable ROI
Defense Unicorns addresses a core paradox in defense software: security requirements are increasing, yet deployment speed must accelerate. The depth of DoW compliance standards – spanning NIST frameworks, IL4/5/6 environments, continuous policy enforcement, Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs), and DevSecOps pipelines – is unlikely to ease over time. If anything, these requirements will continue to exceed those of the commercial sector.
What differentiates Defense Unicorns is that they do not treat security as a tax on velocity. Customers consistently report dramatic improvements in deployment speed and operational efficiency, replacing fragile DIY solutions or legacy systems with a turnkey platform that lowers headcount requirements and reduces risk. In several cases, customers cited outcomes ranging from preventing real security incidents to compressing workflows from hours (or even months or years) down to minutes or seconds.
- Defense Unicorns offers a highly differentiated platform purpose-built for air-gapped and mission environments
Defense Unicorns is not a wrapper around existing commercial tools. Its platform productizes some of the most complex and error-prone aspects of defense software delivery (packaging, validation, deployment, and lifecycle management) into repeatable workflows that dramatically reduce human error.
The platform embeds deep institutional knowledge of DoW software practices, air-gapped environments, and security frameworks directly into the product. Key differentiators include pre-hardened images, native compliance automation, and the ability to deploy and operate across disconnected environments by design – not as an afterthought. Unlike competitors that rely on inherited or proxy Authority to Operate (ATO), Defense Unicorns enables native ATO baked directly into the platform, giving customers greater control, transparency, and long-term flexibility.
Equally important, the company’s open-source architecture avoids vendor lock-in, a critical concern for defense programs measured in decades rather than years. This openness has driven broad adoption and credibility within the defense developer ecosystem while reinforcing Defense Unicorns’ role as the system of record for secure delivery.
- Forward-deployed engineers create stickiness and a powerful product flywheel
A defining element of Defense Unicorns’ model is its use of forward-deployed engineers, who work directly inside customer environments. These engineers serve a dual role: delivering high-touch customer success, while also acting as a real-time feedback loop between operational users and product development.
This proximity builds trust, accelerates platform evolution, and creates meaningful switching costs. Over time, it also opens the door to expansion into adjacent workflows, proprietary mission applications, and fleet-level operations. The result is a business with extraordinary customer retention, deep embeddedness, and long-term expansion potential that is difficult for both startups and large primes to replicate.
- The founding team is uniquely qualified to solve this problem at scale
Defense Unicorns was founded by leaders who helped build Platform One and Kessel Run – organizations that pioneered software modernization inside the DoW itself. CEO Rob Slaughter and CTO Jeff McCoy have lived the problem they are solving, and that lived experience shows up in both the product and the company’s credibility with customers.
Across our diligence, customers, partners, and fellow investors consistently highlighted the team’s mission focus, technical depth, and ethical approach. In a market where trust and execution matter as much as technology, Defense Unicorns is uniquely positioned to become the long-term backbone for secure software delivery within defense. We are thrilled to partner with them and support their growth as they transform mission-critical programs not only for the United States, but also for its allies.
