Vannevar builds software to solve national security problems. Their flagship product helps intelligence agents find patterns and insights from vast amounts of data, translate foreign languages, and search for key documents. For example, the US Air Force uses Vannevar to analyze technical documents about Russia's anti-aircraft systems.

The cofounders have deep domain expertise. Brett Granberg was a VC at In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the CIA and US intelligence community. Nini Hamrick is a former US intelligence officer who embedded with the US military overseas and the former chief of staff to the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

CTO Scott Philips has led engineering efforts at Palantir Technologies and other companies applying machine learning to defense applications.

Vannevar is a mission-driven company that has assembled talent from military branches and defense tech companies like Palantir. With over $25M in revenue and just 100 employees, they are at a potential inflection point as the company grows from new entrant to market leader.

The defense tech market features both large winners (Palantir is a $36B public company) and tight knit communities, as alumni from companies like Palantir and SpaceX have continued to work together and invest in many of the prominent defense tech startups.

Vannevar is ultimately betting that they can cross the chasm in the defense market from being able to win experimental contracts to becoming a household name like Palantir and Anduril.