The five New Hampshire companies named finalists for the 2026 NH Tech Alliance Product of the Year underscore the diversity of the Granite State’s tech sector, with solutions designed to help companies improve their IT security testing, streamline how businesses use artificial intelligence, produce high-demand rare earth metals, help softball players monitor pitch calls and protect aerospace and defense systems from cyberattacks.
The NH Tech Alliance Product of the Year judges and committee, from left: Logan Johnson, NeighborWorks Southern New Hampshire; Matt Harris, Geophysical Survey Systems Inc. (GSSI); Eric Soederberg, Suntra MedTech Solutions; Lisa King, Cross Insurance; Mike Cote, NH Business Review; Amanda Andrews, NH Business Review; Tom Daly, Contrivian; Jeremy Stanizzi, NH Business Finance Authority. (Courtesy of NH Tech Alliance)
Bugcrowd Platform from Bugcrowd, FlatClaw from Kirk Tech Solutions, Freedom Metallization Facility from Phoenix Tailings, Pitch Signal Communication System from Pitch Signal and Edge Cyber Protection Suite from TigerByte Cyber were selected by a panel of judges.
They will compete for the 2026 Product of the Year honors at a live event 4:45 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 19 at the BNH Stage in Concord. Networking will follow the presentations.
The competition will include a live seven-minute pitch and a real-time audience vote of this year’s top product. The event celebrates innovative products developed within the past 12 months and provides a platform for entrepreneurs and companies to receive free advice and product promotion.
Bugcrowd Platform from Bugcrowd
Bugcrowd is a security platform that unifies exposure discovery and assessment, offensive security testing, and intelligence shaped by AI and human insight, helping organizations avoid, discover, and validate real-world risk before attackers can strike.
The company’s global workforce, which includes a major New Hampshire hub, combines an on-demand, vetted community of hackers and researchers with proprietary AI to reduce risk, increase security return on investment, and help teams innovate faster by digitizing security workflows across the software development lifecycle. Over the past year, Bugcrowd advanced the platform with Savant, its new AI intelligence layer.
FlatClaw from Kirk Tech Solutions
Kirk Tech Solutions is an AI engineering firm and IT enterprise consultancy headquartered in Portsmouth, with an additional office in New Delhi. The company helps organizations across technology, financial services, and healthcare turn AI ambitions into production-ready systems — from AI readiness assessments and cloud modernization to enterprise integration and secure AI deployment.
Kirk Tech Solutions is the developer of FlatClaw, an open-source private-cloud AI coworker platform built for data-sovereignty-sensitive enterprises. FlatClaw is a fully open-source AI substrate where all inference, chat, agent fleets, scheduled automation, and document search are gated by role-based access and designed to be economical at scale. Every piece of the stack runs inside each customer’s own cloud project.
Freedom Metallization Facility from Phoenix Tailings
Phoenix Tailings, backed by the U.S. Department of War and Department of Energy working to restore U.S. industrial independence by building the domestic refining capacity needed to make metals for every major technology. Its mission is to redefine the metals industry by creating the first fully clean mining and metals production company.
The Freedom Metallization Facility in Exeter produces rare earth metals essential to automotive manufacturing, semiconductors, AI data centers, and national security, at scale and with zero waste and zero direct-process emissions.
Pitch Signal Communication System from Pitch Signal
Pitch Signal is a New Hampshire sports-technology company building the complete pitch communication and data system for softball and baseball. A husband-and-wife team founded the company. It pairs a mobile app with proprietary wireless hardware, so coaches can call pitches silently, capture every pitch as data, and make better decisions in real time.
Pitch Signal launched in February 2026 with zero paid advertising. Coach feedback and demand has exceeded expectations and resulted in a stronger product roadmap. More than 700 teams nationwide now use it, from local travel programs to nationally competitive organizations and colleges.
Edge Cyber Protection Suite from TigerByte Cyber
TigerByte Cyber develops advanced cybersecurity and resilient edge-computing technologies for space, defense, and other mission-critical systems. Its solutions protect spacecraft, satellite communications, autonomous platforms, and distributed networks operating in contested and disconnected environments.
TigerByte Cyber combines high-speed hardware-based cybersecurity, encryption, protocol validation, anomaly detection, and resilient AI/edge processing in low-SWaP platforms. Its Black Bastion cybersecurity platform provides inline protection for mission data and communications, while SpaceCortex enables deterministic, resilient computing and AI at the space edge. TigerByte Cyber works with the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Space Force, NASA, and commercial partners to enable secure, resilient operations from the ground to orbit.
“The Product of the Year competition continues to highlight the incredible innovation and talent being developed right here in New Hampshire,” said Julie Demers, executive director of the NH Tech Alliance. “Each finalist reflects the remarkable things that are built when vision and technology align, and we are thrilled to showcase their achievements to a broader audience.”
Major sponsors of this year’s POY event are Sheehan Phinney, Wipfli, Cross Insurance, M&T Bank, Pivot Creative, ARMI, Hypertherm, BerryDunn, TruNorth Bank, Primary Bank, Geophysical Survey Systems (GSSI), YULLR, SEE Science Center, and our media partner is NH Business Review.
