Nooks lands $146.8M DIU contract to expand classified infrastructure nationwide

Why it matters

DIU is turning post-award security work into shared infrastructure. If Nooks can shorten the path to classified execution, defense startups can spend less capital building one-off facilities.

David "Mudd" Willard's Nooks has won a four-year Defense Innovation Unit contract with a $146.8 million ceiling, giving the Arlington, Virginia-based operator a federal vehicle to expand its subscription-based classified infrastructure across the country.

The September 10th award follows Willard's move into the CEO role after Sean "BB" Blackman, Nooks' founding CEO, stepped down in 2026. Willard spent 12 years in the U.S. Air Force flying the F-15E as a weapons systems officer before working at DIU.

What the award buys

Nooks says the contract will fund sites in Austin, Boston, Chicago, New York, the San Francisco Bay Area and Honolulu. Those markets will join Arlington, Colorado Springs, El Segundo and Huntsville in a network spanning ten metropolitan areas.

The locations are designed to give selected DIU portfolio companies access to accredited private suites, individual workstations, secure video conferencing and data-center capabilities. Nooks manages the physical and digital infrastructure, allowing customers to subscribe to capacity instead of constructing and accrediting a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, for each new contract or office.

Nooks will also provide Facility Security Officer services for as many as 100 selected DIU portfolio companies. The work covers facility and personnel clearance processes, Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency compliance, insider-threat programs and administration of DD Form 254, the document that defines security requirements for classified contracts.

That managed-services component makes the award broader than a real-estate expansion. A defense technology founder can win a government contract and still lack the cleared staff, secure networks and compliance function required to begin performing it. Nooks is packaging those pieces behind one provider, with mobile SCIF pods and eventual classified laboratory and manufacturing capacity forming part of its longer-term product plan.

The $146.8 million headline figure is the contract's maximum ceiling. It should not be read as booked revenue. The release does not specify an initial obligation, and Nooks' eventual receipts will depend on how DIU and its portfolio companies use the contract over four years.

DIU targets the transition gap

Nooks was founded in 2021 by Willard, Blackman and Hunter Price to create shared, turnkey facilities closer to clusters of technical talent. Blackman is a former Navy F/A-18 pilot.

"Classified infrastructure should be available as a service, not rebuilt company by company," Willard said in the contract announcement.

DIU formally established the Bridge Program in an August 17th director's memo, assigning Sarah Pearson to address barriers that persist after DIU has selected a commercial technology. The memo identified security clearances, classified facilities, technology accreditation and testing as the first targets. It also set a goal of opening co-use classified facilities nationwide within a year.

"When successful, DIU will have demonstrated a new model, a model where classified infrastructure is resourced based upon usage and becomes operational within months, not years, of the need arising," Pearson said in Nooks' announcement.

Those barriers can outlast the technology cycle DIU is trying to exploit. Fast Company reported that security clearances can take up to 18 months, leaving some providers to work with simulated information while waiting for access. Pearson told the publication that fast-moving AI technology could be obsolete by the time a clearance arrived.

Nooks says its facilities can become operational in months rather than years. The contract creates a test of that claim across a larger pool of DIU-backed providers, though Nooks has not published utilization data or comparative timelines for its existing locations.

The business behind secure access

Nooks' model turns a specialized capital project into recurring access. Customers can rent private offices for one to six people, conference rooms for groups of up to 10, space for classified events and mobile SCIF capacity. Nooks also handles facility, personnel and program security services.

That combination gives Nooks several ways to grow alongside a customer. A provider may begin with fractional security support, add a workstation after receiving a clearance, and later require a private suite, secure network or mobile installation near a test site. The DIU award places Nooks at the entry point for as many as 100 potential customers going through that progression.

Investors financed the expansion strategy before DIU created Bridge. Nooks raised a $25 million Series A in June 2025 from Zigg Capital, Upper90, SAIC Ventures and Lockheed Martin Ventures. Nooks did not disclose a valuation. Zigg founder Dave Eisenberg said at the time that the plan involved developing classified infrastructure while reactivating underused office buildings, an asset-light approach intended to avoid owning every property in the network.

Other defense technology providers are attacking adjacent parts of the same delay. Quindar raised an $18 million Series A in November 2025 to expand its satellite mission-control platform and build a classified facility near Denver. Second Front Systems focuses on accredited software development, authorization and deployment across government networks. Nooks is building the physical and operational layer around the people doing classified work.

Nooks says it plans to announce more locations in 2027 and expand its mobile SCIF fleet to more than 70 locations by the end of 2028. The DIU contract gives Willard a federally sponsored customer channel to help fill that capacity.

Execution will be measured in obligated dollars, opened facilities and the time required to move DIU portfolio companies into classified work.