Dallas’ GetChkd Gets $1.9M SpaceWERX Contract to Enhance Military SATCOM Resiliency » Dallas Innovates

Michael Caplovitz, co-founder and CEO of GetChkd [Image: Michael Caplovitz]

Dallas-founded GetChkd Inc.—whose blockchain infrastructure platform “revolutionizes system connectivity, enforces user-specific mappings, and ensures immutable audit trails for every action”—is putting its capabilities to use for SpaceWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Space Force. 

GetChkd announced today that it’s been selected by SpaceWERX for a $1.9 million SBIR Direct-to-Phase II contract. The contract is focused on enhancing military SATCOM resilience through the company’s blockchain-enabled security architecture.

“The opportunity to extend the use of our blockchain infrastructure platform, while also accelerating commercialization in the private sector, is a significant milestone for GetChkd,” GetChkd Founder and CEO Michael Caplovitz said in a statement. “We’re honored to collaborate with SpaceWERX to advance this technology.”

Follows $1.7M AFWERX contract in 2024

In August 2024, GetChkd was selected by AFWERX for a $1.7 million STTR Phase II contract that was also focused on blockchain infrastructure, aiming to address “one of the Air Force’s most pressing challenges.”

The Air Force Research Laboratory and SpaceWERX—which is a unique division within AFWERX—have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process. They’re doing that by accelerating the small business experience “through faster proposal-to-award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business, and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution,” GetChkd noted.

GetChkd said that on September 27, it “started its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities that will strengthen the national defense of the United States of America.”

Founded in 2019, GetChkd says its platform “guarantees unparalleled security, accountability, and reliability for a connected system of systems across various domains and classifications.” 

Its platform provides user-specific mapping to any combination of sources, and delivers cross-domain and classification rule and role-based access control. The platform also offers immutable audit trails “for complete history and provenance of any action.”

More contracts in pipeline

Caplovitz told Dallas Innovates that in addition to the $3.6 million in AFWERX and SpaceWERX contracts noted above, “we have a couple more as well.” 

According to his LinkedIn profile, Caplovitz is a former vice president of innovation at the Howard Hughes Corporation. Since 2020, he’s been an Atlanta-based principal at Elixxr, the global consulting firm. Previously, he was managing director of institutional equities at Atlanta’s SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

GetChkd’s North Texas leadership

While Caplovitz is now based in the Atlanta area, he confirmed that GetChkd was founded in Dallas and remains a Texas-based company. GetChkd’s DFW-based team includes Co-Founder and CFO Gil Sadka, who’s also a professor of accounting at UT Dallas’ Naveen Jindal School of Management; and Chief Technology Officer M. Dowell Stackpole, who’s also the founder of Fort Worth-based Texas Quantitative.

James Worthington, vice president and head of blockchain at GetChkd, is based in Atlanta.

Caplovitz said that GetChkd is “currently expanding the team.”

“As for our mission,” he added, “we are looking to be ‘The Foundation of Trust in a Connected World.’”

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