RESTON, VA / ACCESS Newswire / October 7, 2026 / Transcend, the company building auditable AI systems for peace, national security, and geopolitical risk decision-making, today announced that it is joining the Hack Factory, the Reston Town Center start-up studio and growth lab funded by longtime technology entrepreneur Matt Devost.

The move places Transcend inside a curated community of founders, operators, and investors working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, national security, and dual-use technology. Through The Hack Factory’s Growth Lab program, Transcend will gain access to investment, mentoring, strategy and growth advisory, investor and customer networks, and dedicated workspace as it scales its platform for government agencies, multilateral organizations, and enterprises operating in complex geopolitical environments.

Transcend’s platform synthesizes diplomatic, military, intelligence, economic, and humanitarian inputs to generate strategic options that are fully traceable to their sources. The company’s tools span red-team and adversarial scenario testing, conflict mapping and stakeholder analysis, peace gaming, and civic engagement – capabilities built for environments where the cost of a poorly informed decision is measured in lives.

“Transcend is exactly the kind of company the Hack Factory was built for,” said Matt Devost, Founder of the Hack Factory. “They are applying frontier AI to problems that matter enormously and that almost no one else is willing to take on. Bringing them into the space adds real depth to our community, and I expect the exchange between Transcend and the other founders here to run in both directions.”

“Joining the Hack Factory gives us the operating environment and the network we need for this next stage of growth,” said Ola Mohajer, Founder and CEO of Transcend. “Being surrounded by entrepreneurs who understand the demands of national security, dual-use technology, and what it takes to build an impactful company is a meaningful advantage. We are looking forward to growing alongside them.”

The Hack Factory’s Reston Town Center facility offers 24/7 secure workspace within walking distance of the DC Metro, along with conference and briefing facilities, gigabit fiber connectivity, and a regular program of events focused on disruptive technology, entrepreneurship, cybersecurity, quantum computing, and venture investing.

About Transcend AI

Transcend AI builds purpose-built AI for diplomats, defense planners, and geopolitical risk teams. Its analytical and decision-support platform generates auditable strategic options across diplomatic, defense, and economic domains, drawing on an expert-curated knowledge base with fully traceable sourcing. The company serves government agencies, multilateral organizations, nonprofits, and enterprises, and is supported by partnerships including the United Nations, AWS, NVIDIA, and Carahsoft. Learn more at missiontranscend.ai.

About The Hack Factory

The Hack Factory is a start-up studio, growth lab, and brainstorming community located in Reston Town Center, Virginia. Founded and operated by entrepreneur Matt Devost the Hack Factory builds companies from new ideas, provides development and venture capital to portfolio companies, and offers mentoring, advisory, and workspace to early-stage and growth-stage ventures – with particular focus on artificial intelligence, national security, and cybersecurity innovation. Learn more at hackfactory.com.

Transcend Joins The Hack Factory to Accelerate Next Phase of Growth

Endpoint Security Startup Ent Emerges From Stealth With $100 Million Seed Round

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Fortreum LLC, a cybersecurity assessment firm based in Lansdowne, has bought Kovr.ai, which helps companies doing business with the federal government obtain cybersecurity compliance sign-offs, the two firms announced this week…

…At the time, Kovr employed a small team working out of the Hack Factory accelerator in Reston and said it planned to grow staff as it added customers.

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[RESTON, VA] — [March 16, 2026] — DEVSEC, an AI-native investigations and digital intelligence company, today announced it has been accepted into the NVIDIA Inception program, a global initiative designed to support cutting-edge startups revolutionizing industries through advances in AI and data science.

NVIDIA Inception helps startups during critical stages of product development, go-to-market, and deployment by providing access to technical expertise, preferred pricing on NVIDIA hardware and software, and opportunities to connect with venture investors and other partners in the NVIDIA ecosystem.

DEVSEC is building the system of record for investigative reasoning. Its Weaver platform enables investigators, legal teams, law enforcement, and insurers to process, analyze, and extract insight from large, complex datasets – combining AI, data engineering, and investigative tradecraft to support high-stakes matters including fraud investigations, asset recovery, breach response, and financial crime. Membership in NVIDIA Inception reflects DEVSEC’s commitment to advancing the AI infrastructure powering next-generation investigative workflows.

“Joining NVIDIA Inception is a meaningful milestone for DEVSEC as we scale Weaver into a platform that handles some of the most demanding investigative and intelligence workloads in the market,” said Kristin Del Rosso, CEO and Co-Founder of DEVSEC. “Access to NVIDIA’s ecosystem accelerates our ability to push the frontier of what’s possible in AI-native investigation technology.”

About DEVSEC

DEVSEC is an AI-native investigations and digital intelligence company building the system of record for investigative reasoning. Its Weaver platform enables legal teams, investigators, insurers, law enforcement, and intelligence organizations to process, analyze, and extract insight from large, complex datasets — replacing the manual, consulting-driven workflows that still define many high-stakes matters. Built with secure, zero-data-retention architecture, Weaver combines proprietary investigative models with frontier AI, data engineering, and investigative tradecraft to support fraud investigations, asset recovery, breach response, financial crime, and other sensitive workflows. DEVSEC helps teams move faster while preserving the rigor, traceability, and defensibility these environments require.

About NVIDIA Inception

NVIDIA Inception is a global program designed to help AI and data science startups during critical stages of product development and deployment. NVIDIA Inception members receive access to technical support, go-to-market resources, and opportunities to connect with investors and the broader NVIDIA ecosystem. For more information, visit https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/startups/.

© 2025 NVIDIA and the NVIDIA logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

The cybersecurity industry faces a critical challenge in harnessing AI’s transformative power while mitigating the risks that currently hinder its widespread adoption. According to Microsoft and ISC2 workforce studies: “Currently 78% of employees are using unsanctioned AI tools at work, with over half of them for some of the most important tasks.” Additionally, 68% of organizations also struggle with the limited explainability of AI systems, a lack of transparency that prevents cybersecurity teams from effectively using AI-driven insights.

The inability to explain or validate AI findings and decisions puts businesses at regulatory, legal, and compliance risk. Blackwire Labs addresses the critical need for organizations to enhance their cross-disciplinary cybersecurity capabilities with their Blackwire.ai solution that prioritizes expertise, trust and integrity.

“Our innovative and pragmatic approach of marrying trusted AI with the wisdom of seasoned experts, empowers practitioners and organizations of all sizes,” said Josh Ray, Blackwire Labs Founder and CEO.

At its core, the system acts as a seasoned mentor, guiding users through complex security challenges with intelligent prompts and insights, including the innovative Predictive Prompting feature. This approach, combined with real-time collaboration tools, breaks down organizational silos and amplifies collective expertise, enabling teams to tackle intricate security issues with unprecedented efficiency. Central to Blackwire’s offering is its commitment to trust and transparency.

The platform incorporates a blockchain-based certification system (Trustwire) that creates an immutable record of all information sources, ensuring every insight can be traced to verified, trustworthy origins. This innovation is further strengthened by comprehensive private session registries and rigorous validation from the Cybersecurity Community of Excellence (CCOE), a network of industry-leading professionals – seamlessly blending advanced AI technology with human expertise to ensure reliability.

“In today’s rapidly evolving regulatory and threat landscape, organizations must embrace innovative AI-driven solutions to increase their capabilities and efficiency,” said Matt Devost, strategic advisor and OODA CEO. “Blackwire Labs offers a powerful new tool, designed with vetted expertise, trust and integrity in mind, that cybersecurity and IT teams must start leveraging in order to protect their companies. I’m excited to support the team and watch as they bring GenAI to the cybersecurity world and enhance our cyber defense efforts.””We’re democratizing cybersecurity capabilities for all.

Our innovative and pragmatic approach of marrying trusted AI with the wisdom of seasoned experts, empowers practitioners and organizations of all sizes,” said Josh Ray, Blackwire Labs Founder and CEO. “This is about genuinely supporting the folks on the front lines and giving the good guys quick access to the expertise they need to execute with confidence and to ultimately be more cyber resilient.”

In addition to CEO and Founder Joshua Ray, the former Global Security Lead for Emerging Technologies & Cyber Defense at Accenture, the team includes Co – Founders Christopher Clark (CTO), and Andrew Maloney (COO), all with extensive cross industry experience in cybersecurity, product development and technology leadership roles at companies like Accenture, iDefense, Palo Alto Networks, JASK and Query.AI.
Blackwire Labs continues to secure and invite strategic partnerships and customers across industries who are passionate for solving critical cybersecurity challenges and understand the importance of building trust in AI-driven solutions.

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LEXINGTON, Mass., Jan. 4, 2024 – Mimecast Limited (Mimecast), an advanced email and collaboration security company, today announced its acquisition of Elevate Security, a provider of human risk management solutions. The acquisition strengthens Mimecast’s offerings by providing proactive insights and deeper visibility into human behaviors and risk, helping customers better protect the digital workplace. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“People, communications and data are core to every organization and artificial intelligence has accelerated cyber criminals’ ability to exploit these essential elements for their own gain,” said David Raissipour, Chief Technology and Product Officer at Mimecast. “People are historically the largest vulnerability in an organization but can also be the strongest line of defense if given the right tools and education. That’s our goal with this acquisition and core to our work – manage risk by understanding human behavior in the context of a complex environment and then acting on it.”

The Elevate Security® security platform has the flexibility to ingest human behavior and context data from a range of sources. It then flags high-risk people using a precision risk scoring algorithm. Combined with tools such as Mimecast’s Awareness Training, these capabilities can help drive targeted intervention and training that reduces overall risk and exposure for companies. 

The capabilities that Elevate Security’s technology powers combined with Mimecast’s portfolio of products, demonstrates Mimecast’s continued commitment to leading customers through the next generation of human risk management.

“Elevate Security prides itself on being one of the first human risk platforms to help organizations identify high-risk people and automate responses and safeguards, and we have long admired Mimecast’s commitment to changing user behavior to enhance protection,” said Robert Fly, CEO and Co-Founder Elevate Security. “We have no doubt that our combined strengths will help break new ground that changes the security conversation.”  

Mimecast will continue to maintain and support the existing Elevate Security customer base. The integration process has begun and customers can expect to start seeing some of the new technology integrated into Mimecast products in upcoming quarters. 

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Snowstorm announced today it has raised $3 million in seed funding, led by Seed Club Ventures, with participation from Cabrit Capital, Keppel Capital, EchoVC and Matt Devost.

Snowstorm raises seed to keep the internet free

Longtime DC-area resident and entrepreneur Matt Devost has launched the Hack Factory, a startup studio and growth accelerator designed to launch new business endeavors and support the local startup ecosystem. The new initiative will be located in the Reston Town Center and will focus on building an environment for new entrepreneurs custom-tailored to their unique requirements.

As a start-up studio, Hack Factory will launch companies based on new ideas and engage in rapid technology prototyping to enable disruptive solutions for a variety of complex problems and opportunities. The initial focus of the studio will be on cybersecurity, AI and data science, blockchain/Web3, and dual use technologies.

Established companies or new ideas looking for that extra boost can participate in the Hack Factory growth labs for meaningful mentoring, growth and strategy advisory, and networking support. The lab will provide capital, co-working space, and access to on-site experts depending on each company’s specific needs.

The Hack Factory will also build a local brainstorming community that brings together the hackers, entrepreneurs, disruptors, technologists, and creators for unique events on a variety of issues.

“The disruptive innovation that occurs over the next decade will be more impactful than the past 50 years combined,” noted Hack Factory founder Matt Devost. “This initiative is designed to accelerate that innovation in the D.C. area, which is a natural hub for technical entrepreneurship and has a unique innovation DNA that differentiates it from Silicon Valley and other startup hubs around the country.”

For curated co-working participants, the space features modern amenities like sit-stand desks, gigabit ethernet access, conference and Zoom rooms, and a fully stocked caffeine and snack bar.

ABOUT THE HACK FACTORY

The Hack Factory was founded by long-time DC area entrepreneur Matt Devost who is currently the CEO of OODA LLC (www.ooda.com). Over the past two decades, Matt has been a founder or executive at firms like FusionX, Accenture, iSIGHT Partners, the Terrrorism Research Center, iDEFENSE, and Tulco Holdings, as well as serving as an investor, advisor, or board member for dozens of companies.

For more information visit www.hackfactory.com or email hello@hackfactory.com.

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