New Mexico companies complete NM FAST Space Innovation Accelerator

WRITER: Alejandro Najera-Acosta, a_najera@nmsu.edu 
SOURCE: Carlos Murguia, cmurguia@nmsu.edu  

NM FAST and Larta Institute have completed a space-focused accelerator cohort that guided six New Mexico technology companies through a 10-to-12-week program designed to strengthen their competitiveness for federal funding through the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. The cohort, which launched July 21, 2026, targeted founders and researchers pursuing grants from NASA, Space Force, and related federal agencies. 

Over the course of the program, participating companies strengthened their commercialization strategies, identified relevant federal funding opportunities, and continued preparing for future SBIR/STTR applications. Participants reported monitoring opportunities across agencies including NASA, the DoD, Air Force/AFWERX, Space Force/SpaceWERX, NSF, EPA, and NOAA. The cohort brought together companies at both the pre-award and early-award stages, pairing Phase 0 applicants preparing their first SBIR submissions with Phase I awardees working toward Phase II readiness and commercialization strategy. 

Biweekly sessions led by Larta Institute covered the full arc of federal commercialization, including space-sector SBIR/STTR funding pathways, proposal development for technical narratives and commercialization components, federal procurement positioning and agency discovery, capital strategy, and transition planning from Phase I to Phase II awards. Each session incorporated one-on-one advisory time tailored to the specific stage and goals of individual companies. 

"New Mexico has a deep base of research and a growing pipeline of founders ready to translate that work into companies that can compete for federal R&D dollars," said Carlos Murguia, director of the Technology and Innovation Gateway at Arrowhead Center. "This cohort gave space-sector founders in our state a structured, expert-led path from early-stage research to federal award, and the results reflect the strength of that pipeline." 

“The NM FAST Aerospace SBIR/STTR Accelerator with Larta Institute was extremely valuable in helping Synapse Controls strengthen our approach to federal R&D funding, customer discovery, and commercialization. The program helped us better align our technologies with SBIR/STTR opportunities and gave us a clearer path from technical development to real-world deployment,” said Carlos Solis of Synapse Controls, a cohort participant. 

Larta Institute led the full design and delivery of the accelerator curriculum. Larta has supported startups that have collectively raised more than $23.7 billion since 1993, and its work with NM FAST extends that expertise to founders building space technology companies in New Mexico. 

The cohort aligned with the aerospace priority sector named in the New Mexico Entrepreneurship Programmatic Support Grant and served companies working at the intersection of advanced computing, bioscience, and advanced energy applications in space-related contexts. 

NM FAST is administered by Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University and operates statewide, serving founders in Las Cruces, Albuquerque, Los Alamos, and rural communities across New Mexico. Over more than a decade of programming, NM FAST has supported more than 470 New Mexico startups and helped companies secure nearly $28 million in federal SBIR awards. Targeted outreach is directed to rural, women, veteran, and minority entrepreneurs. 

The program is sponsored by the New Mexico Economic Development Department's Technology and Innovation Office through the New Mexico Entrepreneurship Programmatic Support Grant, which supports continued statewide programming for SBIR/STTR-eligible companies in the four priority sectors.