Integrate raises $17M to move defense project management into the 21st century Marina Temkin 6:21 AM PST · February 11, 2026 John Conafay, a veteran of the US Air Force, has spent most of his career leading business development at public and private aerospace companies, including Spire, Astranis, and ABL Space Systems.
At each company, Conafay ran into the same software hurdle: collaborating on government contracts was a logistical mess that forced his teams and their federal counterparts to rely on a tedious back-and-forth of PDFs and Excel files. The bottleneck was always the same—most project management tools like Atlassian’s Jira and Asana simply weren’t secure enough to meet the government’s strict security standards.
So, in early 2022, Conafay launched Integrate, a collaboration platform designed specifically to allow private companies, the US Department of Defense, and other government agencies to work jointly on classified, multi-entity projects. Last year, the Seattle-based startup won a $25 million , five-year contract from the US Space Force.
That validation from a major agency was one of the reasons Wesley Chan, co-founder and managing partner at FPV Ventures, just led Integrate’s $17 million Series A. Chan, known for early bets on Canva, Robinhood, Plaid, and more than 20 other unicorns, told TechCrunch he invested because Integrate solves a big problem for the government and the private companies that serve it.
Until recently, the tech sector shunned selling to the US Department of Defense, feeling that it was immoral to create products for the military. But that sentiment changed after Russia invaded Ukraine and China began to be viewed as an adversary.
This shift also means other project management companies may now want to sell their products to the government, but Conafay claims it will be technically difficult for them to catch up to Integrate.
“If you don’t build something from the ground up with government requirements, you can’t really go back and re-architect software that exists for government purposes,” he told TechCrunch.
Techcrunch event TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026: Tickets Live On June 23 in Boston , more than 1,100 founders come together at TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 for a full day focused on growth, execution, and real-world scaling. Learn from founders and investors who have shaped the industry. Connect with peers navigating similar growth stages. Walk away with tactics you can apply immediately Save up to $300 on your pass or save up to 30% with group tickets for teams of four or more. TechCrunch Founder Summit: Tickets Live On June 23 in Boston , more than 1,100 founders come together at TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 for a full day focused on growth, execution, and real-world scaling. Learn from founders and investors who have shaped the industry. Connect with peers navigating similar growth stages. Walk away with tactics you can apply immediately Save up to $300 on your pass or save up to 30% with group tickets for teams of four or more. Boston, MA | June 23, 2026 REGISTER NOW According to Conafay, what sets Integrate apart from its civilian-focused competitors is its ability to let different organizations simultaneously and securely collaborate on massive project schedules while keeping sensitive details hidden from other participants.
Integrate is designed to handle the coordination of mammoth, multi-year mega-projects, such as the F-35 Lightning II program or the James Webb Space Telescope, where thousands of partners must stay in sync, Conafay explained.
While he was careful not to reveal too much about customers besides the Space Force, he did say that some of the work the startup is doing for that branch of US military involves deployments of large rockets.
“They have to coordinate tens of satellites on a single launch across dozens of missions,” Conafay said. “The complexity is pretty extreme, and they use us to coordinate those things.”
Integrate intends to grow by selling its software to other branches of the U.S. military, including the Navy, the Army, and the intelligence community, as well as to the private companies that serve them.
Marina Temkin Reporter, Venture
Marina Temkin is a venture capital and startups reporter at TechCrunch. Prior to joining TechCrunch, she wrote about VC for PitchBook and Venture Capital Journal. Earlier in her career, Marina was a financial analyst and earned a CFA charterholder designation.
You can contact or verify outreach from Marina by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at +1 347-683-3909 on Signal.
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