Arkenstone Defense

About Arkenstone Defense

Arkenstone Defense, Inc. is a government-contracting (GovCon) operating-infrastructure company that helps commercial technology companies enter, win, and scale within the U.S. federal market. Founded in 2025 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, Arkenstone bundles the back-office functions a modern technology company needs to sell to the U.S. government - workforce operations, HR, payroll, insurance, personnel security, contracting support, compliance, and accreditation (including frameworks such as CMMC and FedRAMP) - into a single managed platform. By embedding these operational controls directly into a client's environment, the company aims to remove the compliance, security, and administrative burden that keeps venture-backed startups and dual-use companies out of the federal market. Arkenstone serves the defense industrial base, dual-use companies, defense-tech firms, and prime-level operators. The company emerged from stealth in July 2026 with a $35 million seed round led by J2 Ventures, with participation from Susa Ventures, Artis Ventures, and Granite Hill Capital Partners, and said more than two dozen defense-technology companies already operated on its platform. It was co-founded by Peter Dixon (CEO, previously founder of Second Front Systems), Rachel Olney (CTO/CPO), and William Treseder (COO, co-founder of BMNT). Arkenstone has also grown through acquisition, buying compliance-software firm Anitian and, in July 2026, GovPort, a government-contracting system of record for managing subcontractors, deliverables, and compliance.