How Khasm Labs Is Bridging the Gap Between Startup Innovation and Defense Deployment

For many startups, developing groundbreaking technology is only half the battle. Navigating the path from innovation to real-world deployment, especially within the Department of War, can be one of the greatest challenges.

That challenge is exactly what Khasm Labs was built to solve.

Based in Woodinville, Washington, Khasm Labs has evolved from a 5G innovation ecosystem into a technology company focused on tactical networking, systems integration, and helping emerging companies transition their innovations into commercial and defense markets. As Scott Waller, Chief Technology Officer at Khasm Labs, puts it: “That’s the chasm.” “There is a chasm in the startup world and how they get interconnected.”

Building More Than Technology

Khasm Labs started about five years ago as the 5G Open Innovation Lab with the original mission of bringing together the 5G and telecom industry with a startup ecosystem, working closely with partners including Microsoft, Dell, Intel, Nokia, Accenture, and Amdocs. Over that time, the company has worked with more than 150 startups which have collectively raised billions of dollars in funding.

That structure grew out of a pattern Waller saw firsthand: startups with strong market fit on one side, and real operational need — in the defense industrial base, in ports and logistics — from large industry partners on the other. It also exposed a gap in how networking itself was packaged for those use cases, which led Khasm to build its own product. “We’re an innovation shop. We’re building stuff on our own and accelerating the industry.” “But at the same time, we’ve got this portfolio of startups that are really great assets, and they need our help just as much as the industry needs their help.”

Acting as the Integrator

One of Khasm Labs’ strengths is serving as the integrator between multiple emerging technologies. Individual startups may specialize in AI, robotics, sensors, autonomy, or cybersecurity, but few have the networking expertise to connect those capabilities into one working system. As Waller puts it: “We’ve become the integrator. We’ve become the person that brings that all together.”

Khasm Labs’ role as an integrator has also played out through the Crucible Afterburner Program, which was powered by FedTech and NW Tech Bridge. Five companies were brought together for a six-month effort culminating in a demonstration with the Naval Postgraduate School as a field experiment in California. Waller describes the goal as figuring out, alongside the Naval Postgraduate team, “how do we become more of that glue” so that other startups can plug in — building that connective role, he says, from both the application and networking side.

Looking Ahead

Waller sees the biggest opportunity not just in building networking technology, but in helping other companies find their way to government customers. The recurring obstacle, he says, is the dual-use requirement itself: “It must be dual use. You have to have a commercial application just as much as you have a defense application.”

Ports and logistics have been part of Khasm’s answer. At the Port of Tacoma, the company built a private 5G network in layers — starting with private industry clients, then extending to the Port Authority, and eventually connecting to federal work happening at the port through Pacific Northwest National Labs. Waller sees that layering as dual use done right: “we took dual use to a new way where we’re actually cross collaborating and bringing the industry and the agencies together.” It’s also, he says, where the work gets satisfying: “when you see that actually work, it’s the dual use that we’ve really taken to heart.”

That philosophy closely aligns with the mission of Northwest Tech Bridge: connecting innovators with defense stakeholders, accelerating technology transition, and bridging the gap between promising ideas and operational capability.

Watch our short interview with Scott to hear more about Khasm Labs’ journey in his own words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN2vpWvLkVQ