Istari
Istari Digital provides a decentralized, zero-trust digital engineering infrastructure platform that securely routes engineering data across tools, teams, and security clearances for U.S. aerospace, defense, and mission-critical customers without copying source data, monetizing through federal contracts, software subscriptions, and professional services.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2022
- HeadquartersArlington, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Istari does
Istari Digital, Inc. (DBA Istari) is a U.S. digital engineering infrastructure company headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, with a registered address in Charleston, South Carolina. The company builds a decentralized, zero-trust platform that securely routes engineering data across tools, teams, and security clearances without copying or centralizing source data, allowing models, simulations, and collaborators to operate on a single live source. Core technology is delivered on AWS cloud infrastructure with CI/CD foundations, native integrations into engineering tools such as Cameo, MATLAB, and 3DExperience, and a proprietary graph data layer (Dgraph, acquired from Hypermode in October 2025) that supports AI-native workflows and complex relationships across engineering programs.
The platform's customer base is concentrated in U.S. aerospace and defense. Flagship programs include Industry Øne (a Department of the Air Force Digital Transformation Office program contracting 15 Defense Industrial Base organizations to connect live engineering data across industry silos), the $19M USAF X-Plane program targeting the world's first digitally-certified aircraft via a modification of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works X-56A using digital twin technology, and a Mission Engineering Automation Testbed prototype with the Department of War. A commercial partnership with Blue Origin (December 2025) extends the platform's reach into AI-designed lunar hardware. The company is led by CEO Dr. Will Roper (former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics), CTO/Co-founder Christopher Benson, VP of AI Mark Ryland (former AWS Worldwide Public Sector Chief Architect), and VP Engineering/Product/Design Maggie Johnson-Pint.
Istari monetizes through a combination of subscription licensing (Cloud Software on AWS and On-Premise Software), usage-bundle / consumption-based licensing, professional services under Statements of Work, paid support packages, and direct U.S. government contracts channeled through a wholly-owned federal contracting subsidiary, Istari Federal LLC. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. The company has raised approximately $40M in disclosed funding across two rounds ($13M from Radius Capital in February 2023 and $27.05M in January 2025), and is reported to operate with 51–100 employees though no formal headcount is publicly disclosed. Istari is a privately held Delaware corporation; its investor base, cap-table, and full ownership structure are not disclosed in the available material.
Istari firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Istari
- Legal name
- Istari Digital, Inc.
- Website
- https://istaridigital.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2022
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- Istari Digital provides a decentralized, zero-trust digital engineering infrastructure platform that securely routes engineering data across tools, teams, and security clearances for U.S. aerospace, defense, and mission-critical customers without copying source data, monetizing through federal contracts, software subscriptions, and professional services.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Istari industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Digital engineering collaboration software
- NAICS
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Computer Systems Design Services (541512), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Data Virtualization & Federation (HDAEACAH)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Data Engineering, Integration & ETL/ELT Services (BPAEAHAB)
Keywords
Where Istari is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Arlington
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Istari business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel
Revenue model
- Software Subscription (Cloud & On-Premise): Primary revenue stream: customers license Cloud Software and/or On-Premise Software on a Subscription basis (typically one-year terms with auto-renewal), subject to Usage Bundle limits defined in the Order Form. Renewal rates may be adjusted based on historical usage.
- Usage Bundle / Consumption-Based Licensing: Software usage is sold via Usage Bundles (software usage metrics, capacity limits, consumption units, or measurable usage parameters); overages can be purchased at then-current rates. Usage Bundle allocations reset each Subscription Term.
- Professional Services: Consulting, training, deployment, and integration services purchased under a Statement of Work (SOW), including installation, deployment, and usage assistance.
- Support Packages: Paid Support packages available during the Subscription Term per Istari Digital's standard support policies.
- U.S. Government Contracts: Direct federal contracting — e.g., $8.6M Department of the Air Force contract for Industry Øne and $19M USAF X-Plane contract; services/sales channeled via Istari Federal LLC (a wholly-owned subsidiary and designated Partner).
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| — | — | Subscription license with Usage Bundle limits and optional overages |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels7 records
Istari product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Istari Digital provides a digital engineering infrastructure platform that securely routes engineering data across tools, teams, and security clearances without copying or centralizing source data. Built on a decentralized zero-trust framework, it lets aerospace, defense, and government organizations collaborate live on models and simulations while preserving data sovereignty. The company sells the platform as Cloud Software and On-Premise Software under subscription licensing with usage bundles, augmented by professional services, support, and the acquired Dgraph graph database.
Product overview
Istari Digital offers a unified digital infrastructure platform for engineering data, centered on its core Istari Digital Platform that securely routes data across tools, teams, and clearances without copying or centralizing source data. The portfolio is extended by several program-level initiatives: the Industry Øne Program (the "ARPANET for Engineering," contracting 15 Defense Industrial Base organizations under a Department of the Air Force contract), the X-Plane digitally-certified aircraft program (a $19M U.S. Air Force program using digital twins for the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works X-56A modification), the Mission Engineering Automation Testbed prototype with the Department of War, and the acquired Dgraph distributed graph database that strengthens the data foundation for AI and engineering workflows. Together, the core platform and these programs/adjacent capabilities form an integrated offering that brings agentic AI to aerospace and defense engineering.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Industry Øne: A Department of the Air Force-backed platform that connects live engineering data across Defense Industrial Base organizations without centralizing it, enabling secure collaboration and AI-auditability across defense contractors.
Products and services
- Istari Digital Platform A digital infrastructure platform for engineering data that securely routes data across tools, teams, and clearances, allowing models, simulations, and teams to stay connected in real time without copying or centralizing source data. It provides live, connected engineering data to stakeholders across engineering, compliance, and program management while preserving data sovereignty, and is sold as Cloud Software (AWS-hosted) and On-Premise Software under subscription licensing with usage bundles, with APIs, modules, and the Istari SDK available via docs.istaridigital.com.
- Industry Øne Program A contracted cross-silo engineering collaboration program under the Department of the Air Force Digital Transformation Office that orchestrates 15 Defense Industrial Base organizations to connect live engineering data across industry silos without centralizing it, using CI/CD foundations to enable secure, automated, AI-auditable workflows. Functions as the 'ARPANET for Engineering' and is the first time a small business has orchestrated engineering data across DIB silos.
- Dgraph distributed graph database Open-source distributed graph database supporting complex relationships and AI-native workflows, integrated into the Istari Digital Platform as the underlying data foundation for engineering relationships and AI-driven workflows.
- Professional Services
Quantifiable outcome
- $8.6M Department of the Air Force award to establish Industry Øne platform
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Istari
Customer profileNamed customers4 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Istari technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration4 records
AI capability7 records
Feature7 records
Istari partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Seven partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.
- Department of WarflagshipMission Engineering Automation Testbed prototype agreement with the Department of War, supporting agentic AI initiatives for defense, aerospace and mission-critical industries.
- Department of the Air Force (DAF)flagshipDAF awarded Istari Digital an $8.6M contract to create Industry Øne, a platform designed to facilitate secure, efficient digital collaboration in defense programs while maintaining data sovereignty. Industry Øne is contracted under the Air Force Digital Transformation Office.
- Air Force Research Lab (AFRL)corePrior partnership with AFRL and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works on Flyer Øne, a predecessor program to Industry Øne that established the foundation for cross-organization secure engineering collaboration.
- Blue OriginflagshipIstari Digital partnered with Blue Origin to design a device that converts lunar regolith into thermal energy storage, unveiled at Amazon's re:Invent 2025 in Las Vegas. The device addresses the two-week lunar night challenge by extracting heat from moon dust to provide reliable power during extreme cold periods. Istari's platform uses AI guardrails to limit hallucinations during the design process, with implications for commercial aerospace and government adoption.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreIstari Digital uses AWS as its cloud infrastructure provider for Cloud Software, per the EULA (Attachment 1, Section H). Customer use of the Cloud Software is subject to AWS terms and limitations set forth on AWS's website.
- Hypermode, Inc.minorIstari Digital acquired Dgraph (a leading open-source distributed graph database) from Hypermode, Inc. to strengthen its data platform for AI and engineering workflows. Relationship is transactional (M&A) rather than an ongoing operating partnership.
- United States Air Force (USAF)flagshipUSAF awarded Istari Digital a $19 million contract for the X-Plane program, aiming to digitally simulate and certify a modification of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works X-56A as the world's first digitally-certified aircraft using digital twin technology.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Istari competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Palantir Technologies: Established data platform provider serving defense, intelligence, and commercial customers. Highly comparable because both build secure, zero-trust data infrastructure for mission-critical federal buyers, though Palantir operates at much greater scale across multiple verticals.
- ANSYS: Engineering simulation software used across aerospace and defense for digital twin and certification workflows. Comparable because ANSYS tools are central to the digital engineering workflows Istari orchestrates, and both target aerospace digital certification use cases, though ANSYS is a simulation software incumbent rather than a data federation layer.
- Anduril Industries: Defense technology prime building AI-native systems for the Department of Defense. Comparable as a peer-stage, venture-backed defense tech company pursuing digital transformation and autonomous/agentic capabilities for federal customers, though Anduril focuses on hardware-forward autonomy rather than data federation.
- Booz Allen Hamilton: Major defense and federal IT services contractor with deep digital engineering and AI practices. Comparable because Booz Allen provides digital engineering integration services and AI deployment to the same federal defense customers, though it operates as a large systems integrator rather than a software product company.
- Dassault Systèmes: Provider of the 3DExperience (3DX) platform for product design, simulation, and manufacturing — explicitly integrated with by Istari. Comparable as the established digital engineering platform incumbent whose data formats and tools Istari federates across, though Dassault's business model is CAD/PLM software licensing rather than zero-trust data routing.
Emerging players
- Shift5: Cybersecurity and data platform for operational technology in defense and transportation. Comparable as an emerging defense-adjacent data infrastructure company selling into DoD and critical infrastructure customers, though Shift5's focus is OT cyber telemetry rather than engineering data federation.
- Primer.ai: AI and natural language processing platform serving defense, intelligence, and security customers. Comparable as an emerging AI infrastructure peer with federal defense customers, though Primer's emphasis is on unstructured text analytics rather than engineering data collaboration.
Direct peers
- C3.ai: Enterprise AI application platform with deep defense and federal government deployments (e.g., U.S. Air Force predictive maintenance). Comparable because both sell AI platforms targeted at aerospace, defense, and mission-critical federal use cases via subscription/enterprise licensing.
- Govini: Data and analytics platform purpose-built for the Defense Department and federal acquisition ecosystem. Comparable because both provide data infrastructure that connects disparate federal and defense stakeholders, though Govini focuses on acquisition and program data rather than engineering data.
- Rebellion Defense: AI and decision-support software company serving DoD and intelligence customers. Comparable as a defense-focused AI software peer pursuing similar federal procurement pathways, though Rebellion's product emphasis is on mission intelligence and analytics rather than engineering data federation.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Istari social profiles
Digital presenceIstari compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
Istari financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Istari leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
Istari subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries1 record
Istari funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Istari M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A1 record
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Istari
What does Istari do?
Istari Digital provides a digital engineering infrastructure platform that securely routes engineering data across tools, teams, and security clearances without copying or centralizing source data. Built on a decentralized zero-trust framework, it lets aerospace, defense, and government organizations collaborate live on models and simulations while preserving data sovereignty. The company sells the platform as Cloud Software and On-Premise Software under subscription licensing with usage bundles, augmented by professional services, support, and the acquired Dgraph graph database.
Is Istari a public or private company?
Istari is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Istari founded?
Istari was founded in 2022. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Istari based?
Istari is headquartered in Arlington, United States, in the North America region.
How does Istari make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Software Subscription (Cloud & On-Premise) is the primary driver. The others are usage Bundle / Consumption-Based Licensing, professional Services, support Packages and U.S. Government Contracts.
Who are Istari's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Palantir Technologies, ANSYS, Anduril Industries, Booz Allen Hamilton and Dassault Systèmes. Emerging players are Shift5 and Primer.ai. Direct peers are C3.ai, Govini and Rebellion Defense.
Does Istari have an API?
Yes. Istari Digital exposes APIs, modules, and the Istari SDK for integrating with its platform. The product page references "the full reference for APIs, modules, the Istari SDK, and platform configuration" via its developer documentation site. Developer documentation is at docs.istaridigital.com.
What industry is Istari in?
Istari's product category is Digital engineering collaboration software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEACAH, Data Virtualization & Federation, with a secondary code of BPAEAHAB, Data Engineering, Integration & ETL/ELT Services. Its NAICS code is 54151 and its SIC code is 7373.