LIFTWAVE INC

Somerville, MA · Defense · Private

Automated munitions handling equipment replacing legacy Munitions Handling Units for nuclear ordnance loading

Claim this profile

Follows are private to you and power your alerts

Updated Oct 23, 2026 · riserobotics.com

Sector: Defense
Headquarters: Somerville, MA
Latest Form D: $14.4M, Apr 2024
Total capital: $34.7M

Federal grants: $7.2M; 4 awards · 2022–2026; Rank in peer group#53 of 164
Private capital raised: $21.7M; 2 Form D · last Apr 2024; 30 months since last filing
Federal contracts: $5.7M; 7 awards · Defense; Rank in Defense#497 of 1442
Granted patents: None on recordNo USPTO grants. Applications publish after 18 months.

Capital timeline

Latest events

Feb 2026Federal contractDefense · SBIR Phase II Tacfi -super Jammer Vehicle Arm Integration-$3M
Jan 2026Federal grantDefense · Phase II · SBIR Phase II Tacfi -super Jammer Vehicle Arm Integration-$3M
Apr 2025Federal contractDefense · Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I, Topic A244-P056: Mobile Sustainment Tools Open Topic. Proposal A244-P056-1312: Rise Robotics Advanced Lifting Solutions: Collapsible Lightweight Cranes.$250K
Apr 2025Federal contractDefense · Fourth On-ramp For Enterprise-wide Agile Acquisition Contract (ewaac) Vehicle.$1K
Apr 2024Private capital raisedForm D · SEC · 2nd filing$14.4M
Jul 2023Federal grantDefense · Phase II · MHU-174 Design Modernization$1.2M
Jun 2022Federal contractDefense · Mctf Lift Device$1.5M
Apr 2020Private capital raisedForm D · SEC · 1st filing$7.4M

Show 5 earlier federal awards

May 2022Federal grantDefense · Phase II · RISE™ Ultralight 10K AT Forklift for Overseas Expeditionary Military Operations$1.2M
Apr 2022Federal grantDefense · Phase II · RISE Robotics Munitions Lift Enabling Technology$1.7M
Jul 2021Federal contractDefense · Reimagining Energy Challenge$200K
Nov 2019Federal contractDefense · Small Business Innovative Research Contract - Research Related To Common Lifting Device For Battlefield Airmen Operations$749K
Aug 2019Federal contractDefense · Innovative Defense-related Dual-purpose Technologies/solutions$50K

Node area is scaled to amount. Form D reports securities sold, which can differ from an announced round; filings are numbered in the order they were made.

Federal first

8months

from LIFTWAVE INC’s first federal award to its first private round.

First federal award · Aug 2019: Defense · $50K
First Form D · Apr 2020: $7.4M · 1st Form D
Awards before first raise: 2 awards

An association in public records, not a cause or a prediction.

Standing among 164 peers

Line = median

Defense · Device

Federal grants#53 · top 32%

Cumulative measures favor older companies. Rankings describe position today, not outcome. Below the median, ranks show as a band rather than a number.

Founders and team

Researcher links verified by same-company patents and grants

Arron AcostaResearcherExecutive Officer, DirectorLinked by $2.9M in grants as PI
Blake SessionsDirectorNamed in SEC Form D filings
Orin HoffmanDirectorNamed in SEC Form D filings
Vivek AgastyaDirectorNamed in SEC Form D filings
Walter WinshallDirectorNamed in SEC Form D filings

What it has protected

No granted patents are on record.

USPTO usually publishes applications 18 months after filing, so recent applications may not be visible yet. Patents assigned under a different entity name won’t match.

Checked: USPTO granted patents and published applications · Oct 23, 2026

ADVANCED PHOTON SCIENCES LLCSimilar federal contract value in Defense · $5.8M in contracts
PHOTON-X, INC.Similar federal contract value in Defense · $5.8M in contracts
UNIVERSITY TECHNICAL SERVICES, INC.Similar federal contract value in Defense · $5.7M in contracts
VETH RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, LLCSimilar federal contract value in Defense · $5.7M in contracts
TELESWIVEL LLCSimilar federal contract value in Defense · $5.6M in contracts
GENERAL LASERTRONICS CORPORATIONSimilar federal contract value in Defense · $5.6M in contracts

Regulatory activity · Defense

Sector-level, not company-level

11 Jun 2026Danger Zone; Waters of Carr Creek and Whitehall Bay in the Vicinity of the Naval Support Activity AnnapolisEngineers Corps
13 Mar 2026Federal Acquisition Regulation; Federal Acquisition Circular 2026-01; IntroductionNational Aeronautics and Space Administration
13 Mar 2026Federal Acquisition Regulation: Trade Agreements ThresholdsNational Aeronautics and Space Administration
13 Mar 2026Federal Acquisition Regulation; Federal Acquisition Circular 2026-01; Small Entity Compliance GuideNational Aeronautics and Space Administration
27 Aug 2025Federal Acquisition Regulation; Federal Acquisition Circular 2025-06; Small Entity Compliance GuideNational Aeronautics and Space Administration
27 Aug 2025Federal Acquisition Regulation; Federal Acquisition Circular 2025-06; IntroductionNational Aeronautics and Space Administration

Rules are matched to sector, not to company. Recent activity in a sector is context rather than a signal about this business — until rules are matched to what a company actually builds, the section is shown as context and nothing more.

Sources

Federal grants from SBIR/STTR, NIH, NSF and DoD records. Federal contracts from USAspending.gov. Private capital from SEC Form D. Patents from USPTO. Publications from OpenAlex. Regulatory activity from the Federal Register. Press matched on company name.

How to read this page

Figures show associations in public records, not causes or predictions. Nothing here is investment advice. An em-dash means no record was found under this company's name, not that none exists.

Data freshness

SEC Form D filings through Oct 23, 2026. SBIR and STTR awards through Oct 21, 2026.