24-06-2025
Virginia AI startup nabs $10M more from the Department of Defense
Startup profile: Ask Sage
Founded by: Nicolas Chaillan
Year founded: 2023
Headquarters: Front Royal, VA
Sector: Government contracting, defense
Funding and valuation: $17 million Series A. Valuation undisclosed
Key ecosystem partners: Department of Defense
Under Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon is continuing to implement AI across its operations, including a local firm's technology to rewrite personnel descriptions and draft press releases.
Ask Sage in Front Royal is expanding its work with the Department of Defense (DOD) through a $10 million partnership. The move comes after the US Army released its 'Army Enterprise Large Language Model Workspace,' powered by Ask Sage technology, in May under a $49 million, five-year contract. That platform is used in cases like office operations and 'warfighter readiness,' meaning how AI can speed up decision-making and operations during missions, explained founder and CEO Nicolas Chaillan.
The generative AI tools built by Ask Sage are used in both government and commercial sectors for building code, responding to government RFPs and analyzing data. Ask Sage's technology is currently used by 27 agencies and more than 15,000 teams, per a press release.
He described the tech as a generative AI tool that's authorized for both classified and unclassified defense environments. It's compliant with the highest levels of government security requirements, including FedRAMP High.
'That level of trust and security is central to why the Department of Defense selected Ask Sage to support mission-critical functions,' Chaillan said in a written statement to 'Ask Sage provides a trusted, policy-compliant foundation that helps the DOD scale AI in a way that's both responsible and operationally impactful.'
The $10 million will be used to expand Ask Sage's tech under the DOD to the Combatant Commands, the Joint Staff and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The tech will be built off the existing workspace used within the Army, per Chaillan, a former chief software officer for the US Air Force.
'Rather than developing an entirely new product, this investment focuses on making proven … tools available more broadly — enabling DOD teams to accelerate workflows across acquisition, cybersecurity, logistics, and more,' he said.
According to Chaillan, Ask Sage's tech already automates the government acquisition process and reduces the time it takes to complete Authority to Operate processes for Combatant Commands (the highest-level military commands and responsible for military operations). These formal processes determine if a system is properly secure and compliant with standards.
Founded in 2023 and employing a fully remote team of over 20, according to Chaillan (he pointed to the staff page on the company's website, which lists 24 people), Ask Sage also wrapped a $17 million Series A in December. Although the company's announcement of that raise listed Arlington in its dateline, the company now describes its headquarters as Front Royal, about 70 miles west of Arlington in Warren County.
Outside of this partnership, Chaillan works with industry giants like Microsoft, AWS, Meta, Nvidia and Google under the DOD.
Chaillan, whose LinkedIn dates his tenure as the Air Force's chief software between May 2019 and October 2021, said he has seen an increased interest in 'tangible warfighting outcomes' under the Trump administration, which Ask Sage's tech is geared toward.
Due to the president's April 2025 executive order requiring agencies to procure commercial products to the 'maximum extent practicable,' he's witnessing more government bodies bid work, he said.
'We still see some agencies violating the executive order and build[ing] their own custom solutions,' Chaillan said, 'but we have seen significant progress with teams now leveraging solutions like Ask Sage and properly bidding work.'
