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Twenty Fairfax County-based companies and 14 companies based in additional Northern Virginia Economic Development Alliance jurisdictions out of 50 companies placed on the Washington Business Journal’s 2022 list of Fastest Growing Companies in Greater Washington, D.C.

“Congratulations to the 34 Northern Virginia-based companies that were recognized by the Washington Business Journal for their tremendous growth,” said Victor Hoskins, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. “These companies exemplify the dynamic business environment here in Fairfax County and throughout the region for both start-ups and established companies.”

The following Fairfax County-area based companies ranked on the list: 10Pearls (Tysons); Agiliko (Alexandria); Brillient (Reston); Brothers Mechanical (Lorton); Gridiron IT Solutions (Reston); Gunnison Consulting Group (Fairfax); ID.me (Tysons); MetaPhase Consulting (Reston); MicroHealth (Tysons); MindPoint Group (Tysons); Modus Create (Reston); Old Dominion National Bank (Tysons); Orr Partners (Reston); PBG Consulting (Tysons); ShiftMed (Tysons); Shirley Luu and Associates (Tysons); ShorePoint (Herndon); Stage 2 Security (S2) (Tysons); Steampunk (Tysons); and Turn2Partners (Herndon). More than 2,300 companies were nominated for the ranking this year, according to the WBJ.

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Veteran and Military Spouse Career Fair Draws 400+ Attendees

More than 60 companies and organizations met with over 400 veterans, transitioning service members and military spouses seeking to advance their careers at a two-day Veteran and Military Spouse Career Fair on September 21 to 22, 2022. Led by the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, an in-person hiring event was held at the National Museum of the United States Army at Ft. Belvoir the first day, followed by a virtual career fair.

During the two-day career fair, candidates had the opportunity to network and interview with companies in Northern Virginia, from government agencies and small businesses to Fortune 500s. Regional employers – including Adobe, Amazon, CACI and the FBI – were actively hiring for more than 10,000 positions across a variety of sectors including government, IT, finance, renewable energy, and healthcare. Veteran career organizations in attendance provided valuable resume translation guidance and military spouse career education services.

The September 2022 career fair was hosted in collaboration with Fairfax County Government; Fort Belvoir Transition Assistance Program; Fort Belvoir Army Community Service; Northern Virginia Regional Commission; Virginia Department of Veteran Services; Virginia Employment Commission Veterans Services; and HIRE VETS NOW.

Home to nearly 80,000 veterans and their families, as well as a vibrant community of nearly 2,000 veteran-owned firms, Northern Virginia’s Fairfax County is a choice location for both active duty and retired military to successfully transition into the civilian workforce. Visit workinnorthernvirginia.com to find out about Northern Virginia’s numerous military friendly employers, current job opportunities, and future career fairs.

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Weekly Business News Digest

Veteran Distinguished Service Awards: The Tysons-based Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce recently honored companies, nonprofit groups and individuals for their service to veterans at the Distinguished Service Awards, Sun Gazette reported. This year’s recipients in Veteran-Owned Businesses of the Year categories included: Prescient Edge (Tysons); PingWind (Annandale); and Conforma (Washington, DC). There were two winners of the Veteran Employee of the Year Award: Tyler Sweatt of SecondFront (Tysons) and John Quackenbush of JHNA (City of Alexandria). The Veteran Service Organization of the Year Award went to Johnny Mac Soldiers Fund (Ashburn); and the Lifetime Achievement Award: W. Glenn Yarborough Jr., president and CEO of WGY & Associates (Tysons).

“It’s an honor to be recognized as a Distinguished Service Veteran Owned small business and for the entire PingWind team to see we are accomplishing great things together. We are proud to be veteran-owned, foster veteran employment and support the veteran community, including providing services for the Department of Veterans Affairs. We are tremendously lucky with the great economic resources offered by Northern Virginia including a top-tier labor pool, access to supporting institutions and a diverse network of service providers, and we look forward to future growth together,” said Aaron Moak, CEO, PingWind.

5G threat assessment: The U.S. Department of Defense partnered with Tysons-based non-profit corporation MITRE to develop a new adversarial threat assessment framework for 5G networks, applications and devices, ExecutiveBiz reported. FiGHT, also known as 5G Hierarchy of Threats, is a purpose-built model of adversary tactics and techniques put together to help the 5G community verify the security of the next-generation broadband technology, test it against advanced persistent threats and identify coverage gaps, according to MITRE. “FiGHT helps stakeholders assess where cyber investments should be made to achieve the highest impact as they build, configure, and deploy secure and resilient 5G systems,” said Charles Clancy, senior vice president and general manager at MITRE Labs.

Tracking circadian rhythms: Arcascope, a Chantilly-based healthcare technology company developing a mobile platform to aid shift employees who work overnight shifts, announced that it has closed on $2.85 million in seed funding. The round was led by Supermoon Capital, with participation from Inception Health, New Dominion Angels, AIoT Health, Inflect Health, the Accelerate Blue Fund, the Monroe Brown Seed Fund, HealthX Ventures, and others. The company’s platform aims to help shift workers deal with disruptions to their biological clocks and circadian rhythms. “Working nights causes profound disruption of the body’s internal circadian clock, which has been linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and cancer,” the company said. “Clinical research, spearheaded by the Arcascope team, has shown that tracking this disruption in real world contexts and making personalized behavioral interventions can improve health.” Potomac Tech Wire picked up the release.

Radio heads: Herndon-based HawkEye 360 and Tysons-based Spire Global were among the six companies awarded contracts from the The National Reconnaissance Office to provide insight into radio frequency (RF) remote sensing capabilities, GovConWire reported. The companies will conduct studies to help inform the agency’s future acquisition and integration of commercial space-based data into the agency’s overhead architecture, NRO said Wednesday. In a separate announcement, HawkEye 360 said it will model and simulate RF-sensing capabilities, perform accuracy and quality checks and demonstrate the overhead delivery of RF data into mobile, transportable and fixed ground stations worldwide.

New name, new product launch: Tysons-based mobile security firm Quokka—which recently rebranded from its previous name, Kryptowire—is launching a new smartphone protection product called Q-Scout, designed to offer deep insight into applications on Android and iOS devices without being intrusive to end users. Q-Scout has two primary functions. First, it checks through individual applications on an end-user’s device to detect apps with known security flaws. Second, it analyzes the interaction and permission sets granted to installed apps to detect any potentially dangerous interactions, CSO reported.

New delivery floors: Reston Hospital unveiled new labor, delivery floors for Northern Virginia families, ABC News 7 reported. The hospital wrapped up the post-partum floor this summer. Families are now greeted with a new lobby and moms get new beds, chairs and televisions to use. The staff is working with upgraded equipment and state-of-the-art nurses’ stations. The medium-sized hospital, which is about six miles east of Washington Dulles International Airport, delivers 2,000 babies a year.

Urban farm introduction at Fall Festival: Halley Rise — a major mixed use development at the door of the Reston Town Center Metro station — will debut its inaugural Halley Rise Fall Festival on Oct. 22, reported FFXnow. The event, which includes live music, food and activities, also kicks off the introduction of the Farm at Halley Rise, an urban farm by Up Top Acres that grows food and donates products to organizations that work to reduce food insecurity. Just under half an acre in size, the farm includes more than 30 vegetable, herb and fruit crops, along with beehives, a native flower garden, a rain garden and a meadow. The farm is intended to provide Reston-based Cornerstones food pantry and other local food security organizations with produce.

Take a moment: Fairfax County government officials delivered a message to the public, urging drivers, pedestrians and cyclists to pause and “take a moment” in an effort to improve road safety, WTOP reported. “This is a team effort,” said Jeffrey C. McKay, the Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, on Tuesday. McKay said the goal of the message was “to get people in the community to simply take a moment while they’re out on our roads, trails and sidewalks to become aware of what’s around them.” He urged drivers and cyclists to even take a moment to make eye contact with each other. “These things are so important and literally they build a safer community,” McKay said. Click here to see a video of Fairfax County’s “Take a Moment – Pedestrian, Bike and Traffic Safety” campaign.

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Contract Wins

ECS Federal (Fairfax) received a $429.5 million contract from the Defense Information Systems Agency to improve security and reduce risk across the Army’s computer networks, Virginia Business

Cognosante (Annandale) won a five-year, $217 million contract to continue providing support services for a Department of Veterans Affairs system used to manage referral and authorization processes for community care services. GovConWire

Science Applications International Corporation (Reston) received a five-year, $170 million contract from NASA to carry out testing and maintenance on space systems and technological programs. ExecutiveBiz

Valiant Integrated Services (Herndon) landed a three-year, $49.9 million contract from the U.S. Marine Corps to provide training and readiness tools and information. ExecutiveGov

December 6 — 2022 NVTC Tech 100 Celebration. The Northern Virginia Technology Council will host their annual event at Capital One Hall in Tysons. Nominations are sought now (deadline Oct. 16) for NVTC Tech 100 Awards that celebrate the top companies and leaders in the Greater Washington tech community. The honorees will be recognized at the event. Click here to register.

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