Back in 2024 we developed our LAUNCH@RC stage, where six early-stage startups got to pitch to the audience with a focus on launching new products, or bringing their company out of stealth.
We created LAUNCH@RC because we believe in startups. Giving early-stage companies the limelight is an important part of building an ecosystem. It is useful for investors and end users to meet the companies of the future. With 10 years programming the tech sector’s leading startup pitch competition at TechCrunch, our team brings unique experience in finding and evaluating startups, and training them to pitch on a stage.
Selected startups get a crucial opportunity to talk to hundreds of leading investors and users in defence and resilience, to raise capital and to build out networks for feedback, and eventually for sales. They also benefit from exposure to the media present at the conference.
LAUNCH@RC has been a huge success. We’ve hosted 12 companies on the stage. Many of them have gone on to become significant, living parts of the defence tech ecosystem. Their presence at the conference has helped them raise new investment and raise their profiles.
Alpine Eagle, OverlandAI, and Vizgard were on our stage in 2024, and we’ve since appearing they’ve raising a combined $146M. Alpine Eagle spoke on stage at Resilience Conference Warsaw, Vizgard joined the Sceptre collective and received funding from UKDI, and Overland AI has secured contracts with the US military and primes.
Isembard and Hypersonica were on the stage in 2025, and then raised funding to build AI-enabled factories and launch hypersonic missiles for Europe.
For our 2026 conference, we were humbled and excited to receive over 100 applications for our LAUNCH@RC program. This year’s cohort will showcase some seriously interesting founders, leading startups covering every domain of defence and resilience. More on that later.
Introducing SCALE@RC
This year, amongst the 100 entries, we also received plenty of applications from companies that have raised in excess of €10 million, so we decided to support them as well by creating SCALE@RC. We are inviting 10 of these scaleups to take the stage to pitch to our audience. This is an invaluable opportunity for investors, primes, and the military to gain insights into some of the most exciting, fastest-moving companies in the defence tech sector, and to meet the founders at the conference.
For both LAUNCH@RC and SCALE@RC, we ensure a mix of companies by geography and topic area. We look at what they do, and who their investors, partners and customers are. We only invite the founders to be on the stage, and we give them tickets to the full conference so people can meet them. This offers a unique opportunity to meet 20 of the most exciting companies in the sector under one roof.
LAUNCH@RC will be on day one, October 5th. SCALE@RC will be on day two, October 6th.
Watch this space for more on the announcements about who will take to the stage at Resilience Conference 2026 on October 5-6 in London. To meet them in person, buy your ticket here.
