How GRVTY centers its vision around the automated intelligence enterprise

GRVTY can be considered a defense technology startup in some ways, given the company as the market knows it today unveiled that branding and identity only in the early spring.

The company actually has operated in stealth mode since the summer as its private equity owners Arlington Capital Partners put it together, in keeping with the startup tradition.

But GRVTY’s entry into the GovCon ecosystem coincides with a period of disruption, and scrutiny from its customers, on the industry not seen for some time.

On the other hand, GRVTY would make the argument that the timing for its launch is just right and in keeping with what it wants to do to begin with.

“When times are good and budgets are growing, we sometimes get complacent and everybody wants more resources. But when you're forced to be strategic in how you spend your resources, that's when you're forced to be innovative,” GRVTY’s chief executive Katie Selbe told us. “From my standpoint, it's forcing us to think creatively, and the companies that are really adding value are going to be fine and weather the storm.”

Geospatial intelligence, signals intelligence and cybersecurity are among the key technology focus areas where GRVTY is seeking to add value for its national security clients.

One of the company’s bigger picture ideas is to help agencies stand up more of an automated intelligence enterprise that blends hardware platforms, software tools and data.

Selbe said one of GRVTY’s key techniques for making hardware and software work well together is by deploying diverse skillsets from different technology bases. That is because what may look like a software problem at first may be something completely different, she said.

“We're bringing mathematicians, some physics people, some hardware engineers, and a diverse set of capabilities and subject matter experts to really understand what the customer is trying to accomplish,” Selbe said. “Everybody wants a one-size-fits-all, but that's really hard because each customer has different titles, different authorities, different information that they're looking for.”

Acquisitions will of course be a key leg of GVRTY’s strategy, given the backing from and history of Arlington Capital’s approach in the market. Arlington is the same firm that owned BlueHalo for a handful of years before selling that company to AeroVironment in May, roughly seven months after first announcing the $4.1 billion transaction.

Then there is the partnership function, through which GRVTY is looking to create an “ecosystem of” as Selbe put it. GRVTY is looking for companies that are “just like us but in different parts of the market,” she added.

All with the goal of helping the world’s largest collective of consumers and users of data better manage and apply it to their missions.

“We're really focused on how you automate intelligence data through all the complex ecosystems that our national security and defense customers have,” Selbe said.