PeakMetrics Awarded $1.85M TACFI Contract by US Air Force to Identify Foreign Malign Influence in the Information Environment

LOS ANGELES— August 13, 2024 — PeakMetrics, a leader in AI-driven narrative intelligence, today announced that the US Air Force / AFWERX has awarded it a $1.85 million Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI) contract. The funding will support PeakMetrics’ efforts to rapidly identify foreign malign influence within the information environment.

Today’s battleground has fundamentally changed. Near-peer competitors and terrorist organizations have embraced technologies such as generative AI to wage information warfare, shape public perception, and sow chaos, making it increasingly critical to adopt Operations in the Information Environment (OIE) as a core component of military strategy. Through the TACFI effort, PeakMetrics and AFRICOM will collaborate to further advance PeakMetrics’ narrative intelligence capabilities, empowering rapid identification and response to adversarial activity at scale. These capabilities will support the discovery, analysis, and assessments of Information Operations activity in the information environment, particularly foreign malign influence.

"We're thrilled to partner with AFRICOM in tackling the challenges of the modern information landscape,” said Nick Loui, CEO of PeakMetrics. “Our commanders and OIE teams require innovative tools to navigate through the noise and visualize activity in the information environment. This funding will empower us to equip them with advanced data-driven insights, supporting decisive information advantage."

TACFI aims to bridge the “Valley of Death” between SBIR/STTR Phase II efforts and Phase III scaling efforts.

“This is about accelerating agile and affordable capability transitions that are strategically important to the Department of the Air Force,” said Col. Elliott Leigh, AFWERX director and chief commercialization officer for the DAF. “The Tactical Funding Increase program is a powerful tool that bridges the ‘valley of death’ and unleashes American ingenuity to deliver disruptive technologies to get after these priorities.”

This growth news follows an exciting quarter of momentum for the narrative intelligence solution company, which raised over $5.7M to help organizations detect and combat online narrative threats and partnered with Reality Defender to combat digital deception and deepfakes at scale. 

For more information on PeakMetrics, please visit peakmetrics.com. 

About PeakMetrics

PeakMetrics offers a narrative intelligence solution to help government entities proactively detect, decipher, and defend against malign influence within the information environment. Using state-of-the-art narrative ML technology, the PeakMetrics platform identifies emerging narratives in real time, analyzes their significance to prioritize the most impactful threats, and provides actionable response plans to guide decision-making. Government agencies and departments use PeakMetrics to turn chaotic data into clear insights and empower rapid identification and response to adversarial activity at scale. Detect, decipher, defend at peakmetrics.com.

About AFRL  

The Air Force Research Laboratory is the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. AFRL plays an integral role in leading the discovery, development, and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace force. With a workforce of more than 12,500 across nine technology areas and 40 other operations across the globe, AFRL provides a diverse portfolio of science and technology ranging from fundamental to advanced research and technology development. For more information, visit www.afresearchlab.com. 

About AFWERX

As the innovation arm of the DAF and a directorate within the Air Force Research Laboratory, AFWERX brings cutting-edge American ingenuity from small businesses and start-ups to address the most pressing challenges of the DAF. AFWERX employs approximately 370 military, civilian and contractor personnel at five hubs and sites executing an annual $1.4 billion budget. Since 2019, AFWERX has executed over 6,100 new contracts worth more than $4 billion to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base and drive faster technology transition to operational capability. For more information, visit: www.afwerx.com.