Startup profile: Pryzm
- Founded by: Nick LaRovere, David Istrati, Justin Deckert and Matt Hawkins
- Year founded: 2022
- Headquarters: Arlington, VA and Boston, MA
- Sector: Defense tech
- Funding and valuation: $2 million pre-seed and $12.2 million seed; valuation undisclosed
- Key ecosystem partners: Defense Innovation Unit
Congressional transcripts can give hints into what big government tech contracts might be coming up next, if you know where to look. That’s the premise behind Pryzm, which just landed $12.2 million to keep building out its software.
Pryzm, with offices in Arlington and Boston, is an AI platform distilling data for government contractors and agencies — ultimately to help companies find and win work, often with the Department of War, explained cofounder and CEO Nick LaRovere, an alum of the gov-adjacent data analytics software firm Palantir.
Pryzm offers a chat interface to find potential contracts and people to talk in preparation for possible upcoming government RFPs.
It offers a chat interface to find potential contracts and people to talk in preparation for possible upcoming RFPs, he said, pulling on its knowledge base filled with public data like budget documents and financial details from various private companies.
“Our AI is synthesizing and telling them where there’s [a] signal,” LaRovere told Technical.ly, “where there’s opportunity, and how to push forward.”
The tech is also available for the inverse: The federal government can use it to find potential contractors. That capability was added at the beginning of this year, and in March Pryzm landed its first direct government contract with the Defense Innovation Unit, the Pentagon hub charged with “accelerating the adoption of commercial and dual-use technology.”
Along with the Department of War, Pryzm has contracts with several defense tech companies like Pittsburgh’s unicorn Gecko Robotics and Newport News, VA’s Huntington Ingalls Industries.
In planning: A new office, more people and higher government clearance
This seed round was led by tech investment behemoth Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism fund, which opened a DC office in 2024, ostensibly to get in on the Trump administration’s focus on accelerating tech procurement processes. Existing Pryzm investors also participated, including XYZ, Amplify.LA and Forum Ventures.
Pryzm will be using the funds to hire engineers, product development staff and sales experts, according to LaRovere. The firm has nearly doubled its headcount to about 20 people since the seed round closed two months ago. More hiring is planned for 2026.
The startup has been approved for Impact Level 5 and FedRAMP High authorizations, essentially granting Pryzm to handle certain sensitive federal data, and it plans to leverage some of the $12.2 million seed to work on achieving more advanced permissions. There are also plans to open a New York office, per LaRovere.
Likeminded investors and neighbors
Andreeseen Horowitz, known as a16z, is the ideal lead investor, LaRovere said, because of its push for changes in the federal procurement process.
The Trump administration has made clear its desire to streamline government contracts, including calling for deregulation, and Horowitz has publicly backed those plans.
“Those types of policy reforms are also something that we’re super excited to help champion with them and be partnered with them,” LaRovere said.
Outside of that alignment, being part of a16z’s portfolio is a boon in finding potential partners and learning from other startups in the federal contracting industry.
Having a hefty presence in Arlington is also beneficial, per LaRovere. Many defense contractors are in the region to learn from, plus proximity to the Pentagon and a strong talent pool thanks to the many universities.
“The rate of learning and iteration [in this region],”LaRovere said, “is incredibly high.”
