Decrypting Foreign Language Intelligence

From H4D to Intelligence Operations

Vannevar Labs originated from Stanford's H4D program, where co-founders Brett Granberg and Nini Hamrick tackled U.S. Army Intelligence & Security Command's challenge around language processing for battlefield intelligence. What began as a student project addressing intelligence analysts' struggle to triage vast amounts of foreign language data evolved into enterprise software that transforms how defense agencies process unstructured intelligence.

Current Mission

Vannevar Labs' flagship product, Decrypt, is a foreign text workflow platform that enables intelligence officers to rapidly process, translate, and analyze battlefield information at scale. The software helps analysts find patterns and insights in massive datasets, translate foreign languages automatically, and search for critical documents that would otherwise be buried in information overload.

Scale and Impact

The company has raised $87 million from investors including Felicis, DFJ Growth, and Point72. Vannevar now serves multiple Intelligence Community agencies and defense organizations, providing operational intelligence capabilities that directly support national security missions across different theaters and threat environments.

Defense Innovation Legacy

Vannevar's trajectory demonstrates how CMP's structured discovery methodology can identify software gaps that become viable defense businesses. While CMP's financial investment was limited, the organization's framework enabled the founding team to develop a defense-first go-to-market strategy that proved critical for securing initial DoD contracts. The company's success validates the H4D approach of pairing students with operational sponsors—turning a language processing challenge into a scalable intelligence platform that continues expanding across defense and intelligence agencies.