Editor’s note: Startup Spotlight is a regular part of TechWire’s Startup Monday package, which also includes our latest Triangle Startup Guide updates, an exclusive list of tech meetups across the Triangle, multiple calendar listings and our Startup Rewind – a recap of the previous week’s headlines about entrepreneurial companies across North Carolina.
RALEIGH – At the outset of the global coronavirus pandemic, the co-founders of AURA Technologies, LLC, CEO Douglas Bennett and President Anna Bennett, decided to gather their employees together for a brainstorming session on how the company could leverage its resources to assist in responding to the rapidly evolving world health crisis occurring due to COVID-19.
“We decided that we have super smart people, we brought our heads together, with the goal of answering how we could help,” said Anna Bennett. “We assembled our whole team together, held a brainstorming session, sifted through the ideas, and came out with a few that we thought would really help.”
The company doesn’t specialize in global health. But the company does possess the expertise, background, and understanding of how to tackle large problems through innovative applications of technology, said Anna Bennett.
That includes the company’s work in advancing artificial intelligence technologies, which recently resulted in the awarding of a $50 million contract with the US Army Research Office, and will allow the company to expand its research and development efforts into a number of critical focus areas such as advanced manufacturing and predictive maintenance.
Raleigh artificial intelligence firm AURA lands $50M contract with US Army
The groundwork for landing such a contract was laid a long time ago, said Douglas Bennett, as the company was founded to advance technologies that are areas of particular focus for the United States Government through the SBIR program.
As the SBIR program is designed to spur and foster innovation within small businesses, said Douglas Bennett, AURA was founded to spread an innovation ecosystem by building a team of experts in core topic areas.
Mr. Bennett began his career working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), assigned to the advanced research and development division of the National Reconnaissance Office, then worked as the study director for the National Academy of Science’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board where he crafted public policy for U.S. federal and state governments and led a committee focused on Mars exploration.
“I started in the real world version of the James Bond “Q Lab” – which was essentially rapid prototyping for field operations,” said Mr. Bennett. “I then moved over to the advanced R&D group within the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).”
Mr. Bennett has also consulted for NASA, DARPA, the US Air Force Laboratory, and the US Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, and has started two prior firms where he’s also served as CEO. He launched AURA Technologies in 2015 with his partner—co-founder in business, and also in marriage—Anna, who he describes as being integral to the launch of the company.
Anna and Douglas Bennett, co-founders of AURA Technologies, LLC. Photo provided by Anna Bennett.
After more than a decade advancing her career in the biopharmaceutical industry, including serving as the head of global content development at IQVIA where she rebuilt a 200-person global department, Anna Bennett joined her husband to found AURA with the intention of focusing on the commercial, …….
Source: https://www.wraltechwire.com/2021/12/06/__trashed-83/