Outer Rim Exploration and American Tenet Lead 2026 Oregon UAS Innovation Showcase Finals in Pendleton
The Oregon UAS Accelerator has announced the winners of the 2026 Oregon UAS Innovation Showcase, held as a centerpiece of the AUVSI Cascade Spring Symposium in Pendleton, Oregon. Outer Rim Exploration earned the Judges’ Choice award, topping the final rankings from a six‑member panel, while American Tenet captured the People’s Choice Award with the highest audience vote count across all presentations.
The showcase marked the culmination of a multi‑stage process that began with 35 companies in the Oregon UAS Accelerator’s spring cohort. Over 12 weeks, founders progressed through investor readiness programming, pitch coaching, and access to the Pendleton UAS Range, before advancing through earlier pitch rounds into a 12‑company finals held live at Hamley’s Slickfork Saloon.
A Finals Field of 12, Selected from 35
The 12 finalists represented the top companies from the spring cohort and were divided into two thematic sessions: Frontier Robotics and Exploration Technologies and Defense, Security, and Counter‑UAS Solutions. Each team had already cleared previous rounds of selection by judges, making the Pendleton finals a showcase of the most promising solutions spanning exploration, autonomy, defense, and critical infrastructure.
Finalist companies were evaluated on a detailed rubric that included business model, team and advisors, financials, competitive landscape, market opportunity, solution, scalability, presentation and storytelling, and overall investability. Judges scored each category on a 1–7 scale, and those scores were combined into a single presentation score per judge per company, then averaged across the panel to determine the final ranking.
A Multidisciplinary Judging Panel
To ensure a rigorous, real‑world evaluation, the Innovation Showcase finals were scored by a six‑member panel spanning defense, government, safety, venture, and startup banking. Judges included leaders from the Oregon Army National Guard’s 249th Regional Training Institute, the Oregon Department of Aviation, Unmanned Safety Institute, Silicon Valley Bank, Zing Drone Solutions, and OVF.
This mix brought together operational military experience, state‑level aviation and policy expertise, safety and standards leadership, venture and banking perspectives, and founder‑operator insight from the UAS startup community. Their collective scoring produced a tight leaderboard at the top of the table, underscoring the strength of the cohort.
Judges’ Choice Winner: Outer Rim Exploration
When the scores were averaged across all judges, Outer Rim Exploration emerged as the highest‑ranked company. This placed Outer Rim Exploration at the top of a competitive field and earned the team the Judges’ Choice Award for the 2026 Oregon UAS Innovation Showcase.
Directly behind Outer Rim Exploration, Lorica Technologies and MAV Unlimited finished in a near‑dead heat and rounded out the top three. Together, these three companies signal where investors and operators on the judging panel see the most immediate potential for impact and scale among this year’s finalists.
People’s Choice Winner: American Tenet
While the judges evaluated each company against a structured investment rubric, attendees also had the chance to vote live for their favorite presentation. In the People’s Choice tally, American Tenet stood out clearly, receiving 52 votes—more than any other company and by a significant margin.
The People’s Choice voting showed American Tenet leading the field by a wide margin, followed by MAV Unlimited; Haast Autonomous, Lorica Technologies, Prairie Schooner, Outer Rim Exploration (ORE), FlyX Technologies, Sea Stereo, HumanKind Homes, Ether Form, Osprey cUAS, and Ganaio also earning audience support. This performance in audience voting—highlights American Tenet’s strength in storytelling, resonance, and connection with the room.
American Tenet is formally recognized as the People’s Choice Award winner for the 2026 Oregon UAS Innovation Showcase.
A Win for the Oregon UAS Ecosystem
The finals in Pendleton highlighted more than just individual companies—they showcased the depth of an ecosystem that can move startups from application to investor‑ready in 12 weeks, with access to real airspace and real decision‑makers. The showcase was integrated into a broader two‑day program featuring policy discussions, technical talks, and a range tech showcase at the Pendleton UAS Range, underscoring Oregon’s unique combination of infrastructure, strategy, and community around uncrewed systems.
As Outer Rim Exploration, American Tenet, and their fellow finalists move into next steps with investors, partners, and operators, the 2026 Innovation Showcase results offer a clear signal: Oregon’s UAS accelerator pipeline is producing companies that matter—to the market, to mission partners, and to the broader autonomy community
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