Integrate Raises $17M To Move Defense Project Management Into The 21st Century

Defense Project Management Software Integrate Raises $17M to Modernize Secure Government Collaboration

Seattle-based startup Integrate has secured $17 million in Series A funding to transform how defense contractors and federal agencies collaborate on classified projects. The platform solves a critical bottleneck plaguing national security work: existing project management tools like Jira and Asana lack the security clearances required for sensitive government work, forcing teams to rely on error-prone PDFs and spreadsheets. Integrate delivers a FedRAMP-authorized environment where cleared personnel across multiple organizations can jointly manage complex defense programs without compromising security protocols.

Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Bill Ingalls/Flickr under a CC BY 2.0 license.

The Frustration That Sparked a Security-Cleared Solution

John Conafay spent years navigating the aerospace industry's most ambitious ventures. As a U.S. Air Force veteran leading business development at companies like Spire, Astranis, and ABL Space Systems, he repeatedly encountered the same operational headache. Every time his teams needed to coordinate with Department of Defense counterparts on classified satellite deployments or launch systems, they hit a digital wall. Standard collaboration platforms were off-limits. Instead, engineers and program managers resorted to emailing encrypted PDFs back and forth—a process that introduced version control nightmares, delayed decision-making, and created unnecessary security risks.

"The friction wasn't about willingness to collaborate," Conafay explains. "It was about infrastructure. We had world-class engineers on both sides of the table, but we were communicating like it was 1995 because the tools we needed simply didn't exist in a form the government could approve." That realization became the catalyst for Integrate's founding in early 2022. Rather than retrofitting commercial software with bolt-on security features, Conafay's team built their platform from the ground up to meet stringent federal requirements including ITAR compliance and impact level certifications.

How Integrate Bridges the Civilian-Military Technology Divide

Integrate's platform operates as a secure digital workspace where cleared personnel from private contractors, military branches, and civilian agencies can co-manage projects in real time. Users assign tasks, track milestones, share technical documentation, and maintain audit trails—all within an environment that satisfies Defense Department security mandates. The system eliminates the "PDF ping-pong" that previously characterized defense contracting, where a single specification change might require days of email exchanges before teams aligned on revisions.

What sets Integrate apart isn't just its security posture but its understanding of defense acquisition rhythms. The platform accommodates the unique workflows of government contracting officers, program executive officers, and contractor teams who must navigate strict compliance checkpoints. Features include automated documentation for audit requirements, role-based access controls that mirror security clearance levels, and integration capabilities with existing government systems of record. This thoughtful design reflects deep domain expertise—Conafay didn't just identify a pain point; he lived it across multiple high-stakes aerospace programs.

Major Validation: A $25 Million Space Force Contract

Before raising venture capital, Integrate proved its value through the most demanding customer validation possible: a competitive government procurement. In 2025, the U.S. Space Force awarded the startup a $25 million, five-year contract to support satellite constellation development programs. This wasn't a pilot project or small-scale trial—it represented full operational adoption by one of the military's most technologically advanced branches.

The Space Force contract served as a powerful signal to investors. Unlike commercial enterprise sales that might take months to close, defense procurements involve exhaustive security reviews, technical evaluations, and compliance audits. Winning this contract demonstrated that Integrate had cleared every hurdle the federal government places before software vendors handling sensitive space systems data. For Wesley Chan, co-founder and managing partner at FPV Ventures, this validation was decisive.

Why Top-Tier Investors Are Backing Defense Collaboration Tech

Wesley Chan led Integrate's $17 million Series A round, bringing his track record of early investments in category-defining companies to the govtech space. Chan emphasized that Integrate addresses a structural problem affecting hundreds of billions in annual defense spending. "When project coordination breaks down between contractors and government teams, programs miss deadlines, costs balloon, and national security capabilities arrive late," Chan noted. "Integrate isn't selling a nice-to-have productivity tool—it's enabling mission-critical execution at a time when speed and precision matter more than ever."

Chan's investment thesis reflects a broader shift in venture capital attitudes toward defense technology. For years, many Silicon Valley firms avoided military-adjacent startups due to ethical concerns or perceived bureaucratic complexity. That hesitancy has evaporated as geopolitical tensions underscore the strategic importance of modernizing America's defense industrial base. Investors now recognize that companies solving genuine workflow problems for national security agencies represent both mission-aligned opportunities and defensible businesses with long-term revenue visibility.

The Moat: Why Copycats Can't Easily Replicate Integrate's Position

Conafay acknowledges that Integrate's success may attract competitors—both established project management vendors and new startups eyeing the defense market. Yet he remains confident in his company's defensibility. The barrier isn't primarily technical; it's temporal and relational. Achieving the necessary security authorizations requires navigating a multi-year approval process with agencies like the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. Building trust with program managers who oversee billion-dollar weapons systems takes consistent execution across multiple contracts.

"Any vendor can claim they'll 'get compliant soon,'" Conafay observes. "But when a Space Force program manager needs to stand up a new satellite ground system next quarter, they can't wait two years for a vendor's paperwork to clear. We're already authorized. We're already in production. That lead time creates a meaningful moat." This advantage compounds as Integrate accumulates case studies, referenceable customers, and deep workflow integrations across defense branches—assets that can't be reverse-engineered overnight.

Changing Sentiment: How Geopolitics Reshaped Tech's Defense Stance

Integrate's emergence coincides with a profound shift in how technology professionals view defense work. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and escalating strategic competition, many engineers and founders who once avoided military contracts now see modernizing national security infrastructure as both patriotic and professionally compelling. This mindset change has expanded the talent pool available to startups like Integrate, enabling them to recruit top product managers and security engineers who previously might have dismissed govtech roles.

The transformation extends beyond individual career choices to corporate strategy. Major cloud providers, cybersecurity firms, and software companies now actively court defense business with dedicated government divisions. This ecosystem maturation benefits specialized players like Integrate by normalizing defense work while simultaneously raising expectations for user experience and technical sophistication. The days of accepting clunky, outdated government software as inevitable are ending—and startups built for this new era are positioned to lead the transition.

What's Next: Scaling Across the Defense Industrial Base

With fresh capital secured, Integrate plans to expand beyond its Space Force beachhead into adjacent domains including naval systems, missile defense programs, and intelligence community initiatives. The company will grow its engineering team to accelerate feature development—particularly around AI-assisted documentation and predictive timeline modeling—while maintaining its security-first development philosophy. Conafay emphasizes that growth won't mean compromising on compliance; every new capability undergoes the same rigorous security review as the core platform.

The ultimate vision extends beyond replacing PDF workflows. Integrate aims to become the connective tissue for America's distributed defense innovation ecosystem—where startups in Austin, established primes in Los Angeles, and program offices in the Pentagon can collaborate seamlessly on next-generation capabilities. In an era where technological edge determines strategic advantage, eliminating collaboration friction isn't just convenient; it's mission essential.

The Bottom Line on Modernizing National Security Workflows

Integrate's $17 million raise signals more than one startup's success—it reflects growing recognition that national security depends on modern digital infrastructure. As defense programs grow more complex and timelines compress, the cost of outdated collaboration methods becomes unacceptable. By building a platform that satisfies both security mandates and user experience expectations, Integrate demonstrates that government technology can be both secure and sophisticated. For the hundreds of companies supporting America's defense mission, that combination isn't just valuable—it's transformative.