Rise8 Closes 2025 with Record Momentum in Mission Impact, Strategic Growth, and Industry Recognition
Company marks landmark year with major government contracts, expanded leadership, and measurable outcomes across high-impact programs
TAMPA, Fla., Jan. 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Rise8 ends 2025 with record-setting momentum, delivering mission-critical outcomes that changed how Warfighters, Veterans, and government teams plan, communicate, and execute. By embedding with teams and AI to continuously ship secure software into production, Rise8 facilitated faster decision-making, improved planning, restored trust in critical systems, and the adoption of continuous delivery practices across the most complex govtech environments.
Advancing Readiness Through Strategic Contract Wins
Rise8 strengthened its position as a trusted software modernization and delivery partner through several key contract wins:
- Awarded contracts for the Space Force’s Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE) program and the SpaceWERX Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) award under the U.S. Air Force’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program—critical investments in future-ready, AI-enabled capabilities.
- AFWERX Software Delivery Organization (SDO) IDIQ ceiling increase from $99 million to $499 million unlocked a pre-competed vehicle to scale Rise8’s proven delivery model for software that delivers outcomes with impact.
- Selected among the first awardees for the $151 billion Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ), Rise8 will support the Missile Defense Agency’s effort to accelerate delivery of innovative capabilities to the Warfighter with increased speed and agility.
These partnerships enable Rise8 to embed lasting digital capability inside organizations, combining portfolio management with end-to-end software development to continuously deliver valuable software users love. Among notable outcomes across customer programs:
- 84% reduction in time to Authorization to Operate (ATO) for a federal agency outside of DoD.
- 20% more operational events scheduled for a U.S. Space Force customer.
- More than 1,000 hours of engineering time reclaimed for a U.S. Air Force customer’s mission-critical work.
Scaling Leadership to Drive Outcomes in Production:
To meet growing demand, Rise8 added seasoned leaders to three strategic roles:
- Max Reele, Director of Delivery
- Adam Furtado, Director of Enablement, and
- Mike Gehard, Software Engineering and AI Lead
Together, they bring over 60 years of combined experience from DoD and commercial tech, accelerating Rise8’s ability to build, coach, and scale high-performing teams with game-changing culture.
Elevating Engagement Through Flagship Events:
Rise8 continued to invest in the govtech community and culture transformation by creating training spaces where learning happens through action, not abstraction.
At the beginning of the year, Rise8 hosted its third Prodacity in Nashville, convening trailblazers from government and industry around a shared leadership commitment: continuously delivering valuable software users love. Prodacity returns to Nashville, August 25-27, 2026.
Building on the flagship training event, Rise8 announced the inaugural ShipSummit, launching in Park City, UT, March 31 to April 2, 2026. ShipSummit offers hands-on training in a team setting with product managers, designers, and engineers solving real problems sourced from across government.
Recognition that Reflects Impact:
Rise8’s work in 2025 resulted in industry recognition and growing influence across the govtech ecosystem:
- Named to the 2025 Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies, Rise8 continued its track record of over 50% year-over-year growth fueled by real-world outcomes and partner trust.
- Earned a fifth consecutive Great Place to Work® certification with national recognition on Fortune’s Best Medium Workplaces and Best Workplaces in Technology lists.
- Partnered with Combat Forces Command’s Combat Force Enhancement Division to deliver mission-critical software that earned a Spacepower Excellence Award, recognizing an 85% reduction in projected costs over a five-year defense planning cycle and improved reporting efficiency across the space domain.
Rise8 also shaped national conversations on outcomes and mission-critical impact:
- At AFA Air, Space, & Cyber, Founder and CEO Bryon Kroger joined Palantir Technologies CTO, Shyam Sankar and author Raj Shah to share strategies for expanding the defense industrial base through a culture of continuous delivery.
- Clayton Spakes, Growth Manager, spoke on rebuilding software capability for modern conflict, centering on outcomes in production as the only metric that matters.
- At Spacepower 2025, Director of Delivery Max Reele challenged the false tradeoff between speed and security, explaining how continuous delivery and governance enables secure, high-velocity software delivery at scale.
“This year demonstrated what government teams can achieve when they’re empowered to deliver software in production,” said Bryon Kroger, Founder and CEO of Rise8. “Working together, teams shortened approval timelines, shipped secure software into production, and built the confidence to continuously deliver in some of the most complex environments in government, leaving teams stronger and more capable than when we started,” said Kroger. “In 2026, our focus is simple: continue enabling teams to deliver better outcomes in production, at speed.”
Rise8 enters 2026 primed to support defense and federal agencies in driving continuous software delivery and advancing critical missions. To learn more about Rise8’s capabilities and services, please visit www.rise8.us.
About Rise8
Rise8 develops custom software for critical missions to create a future where fewer bad things happen because of bad software. Rise8 is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) with headquarters in Tampa, FL, and a fully remote workforce. Learn more at https://www.rise8.us/ and on LinkedIn, and X.
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