Department Of Homeland Security – USA – Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP) offering startups up to $2M in non-dilutive funding.

SVIP is keeping pace with the innovation community to tackle the hardest problems faced by DHS and the Homeland Security Enterprise. SVIP expands DHS S&T’s reach to find new technologies that strengthen national security with the goal of reshaping how government, entrepreneurs and industry work together to find cutting-edge solutions.

Based in California’s Silicon Valley, the program reaches out to innovation communities across the nation and around the world to harness the commercial R&D ecosystem for technologies with government applications and to co-invest in and accelerate technology transition-to-market. We offer U.S. and international startups up to $2M in non-dilutive funding over 24 months to carry out prototype projects and possibly transition successful projects to production.

Funding Mechanism

SVIP utilizes the Innovation Other Transaction Solicitation (OTS) — SVIP OTS 70RSAT21R00000006 to engage with organizations that do not usually work with the government in order to carry out prototype projects and possibly transition successful projects to production. This engagement is intended to assist new companies so they have more opportunities to work with DHS through targeted non-dilutive funding and provide opportunities for operational testing and market access. Through SVIP, DHS intends to incentivize product developers to open the aperture of their development road maps to include homeland security solutions.

Program Phases

Total $200K to 2 Million over 24 months; 3-4 tranches of  non-dilutive funding ($50-$500K/3-6 months). Total funding amount determined by each topic all. Phase 1: Proof of Concept Demo; Phase 2: Demo Pilot-ready Prototype; Phase 3: Functional and Red Team Testing; Phase 4: Pilot/test in an Operational Environment. Phase 5:  May be awarded if the government determines that further operational testing is required, and/or the technology is applicable in additional DHS use cases. Phase 5 Other Transactional Agreements will be scaled to fit the cost and length of time for the mission need/requirement and are not restricted by Phases 1-4.

For more information or to be added to our mailing list, email dhs-silicon-valley@hq.dhs.gov.

Science and Technology Directorate | Homeland Security (dhs.gov)

SVIP | Homeland Security (dhs.gov)