Update on the AFWERX FY 2022 annual report

Here are some excerpts from the Air Force AFWEX annual report for FY 2022:

AFVentures is delivering more awards faster than ever to small businesses, with 1,685 contract awards annually since FY2020 (vs. 525 annually in FY15 – FY18) and time to award for Open Topic down 62% versus pre-AFWERX. In total, AFVentures has added over 2,200 new companies to the DAF’s small business portfolio since the launch of the Open Topic, and is adding new companies at a 2.7x faster rate than pre-AFWERX…. DAF non-SBIR Phase III contract funding is up by 330%, indicating that the portfolio is having increasing impact on Airman and Guardian capability. Private investors have invested over $27 billion in AFVentures SBIR/STTR portfolio companies since AFWERX 2.0 launch, enabling portfolio small businesses to scale.

When you look at the charts post-award government contracts to their companies is relatively small compared to the amount of private investment. But it’s roughly $5 billion cumulative since mid-2017, or about $1 billion a year. It does look to be accelerating, however. SBIR Phase III awards went from about $400M in FY 2017 prior to AFVentures to $900 million in FY 2021. FY 2022 data is still being reported (3 month lag in FPDS data) but it may or may not break $1 billion.

The private investment, however, is tough to gauge how important AFWERX had been. Joby Aviation, for example, has well over $1 billion primarily on the commercial side. There seems to be other factors important to that story, but certainly AFWERX has been one of the most visible defense innovation programs to the nontraditional world.

Cumulative SBIR contracts, govt follow on, and private investment in AFWERX companies.

In FY 2022, AFVentures made $546M in awards to 643 companies in Open Topic, and $315M to 354 companies on specific program topics. That figure per company is below $1 million, but it would be interesting to see whether there was more of a “barbell” strategy with more large awards (STRATFI) and maybe gearing down on the small awards.

For the AFWERX Spark Catalyst for airman innovation, they gave overviews of the types of innovations and impact made. I would have liked a little more narrative on the AFVentures transitions, who they went to and what impact they are making in programs. But overall AFWERX has had some impressive outcomes and hope they continue to push forward!