Three partners who spent careers inside the defense industrial complex before building a firm to back the founders transforming it.
Colonel James Whitfield brings twenty-six years of United States Air Force service to Aviataix Ventures, including command of an F-15E squadron and two tours in PACAF acquisitions overseeing rapid-prototype programs for autonomous systems. His procurement background spans both operational requirements development and the vendor-side dynamics that shape DoD acquisition decisions.
Before founding Aviataix in 2017, Colonel Whitfield served two years as Director of Defense Programs at a Tysons-based government-contracting prime, where he managed a portfolio of service contracts and observed firsthand the gap between defense-technology capability and the capital infrastructure to scale it.
At Aviataix, Colonel Whitfield leads the investment committee and manages LP relationships. He focuses on autonomous systems, ISR, and defense-software investments — areas where his operational background creates evaluative edges unavailable to generalist investors.
Maria Esposito joined Aviataix as its second investing partner following a decade at Lockheed Martin spanning the F-35 program and Skunk Works advanced development division. At Skunk Works she served as a program executive on classified next-generation platform programs, giving her direct exposure to where defense hardware innovation is headed over a fifteen-year horizon.
She holds a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from MIT and an MBA from Wharton, and previously served as a Principal at a defense-focused growth-equity fund before joining Aviataix. Her technical depth in structures, propulsion integration, and systems engineering is rare in venture circles — she reads term sheets and thermal analysis reports with equal fluency.
Maria leads due diligence on hardware-intensive portfolio companies and manages board responsibilities at Hadrian Automation and Castelion. She also leads Aviataix's LP reporting function and Fund II deployment strategy.
Ravi Khanna spent five years at DARPA as a program manager (2014–2019) running classified unmanned aerial systems autonomy initiatives, a role that gave him unparalleled visibility into both the leading edge of defense robotics research and the pathways through which university and commercial technology gets transitioned into DoD programs.
He holds a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and brings direct technical due-diligence capability to Aviataix's evaluation process for autonomous systems investments — the area where most VC firms rely on outside advisors rather than in-house expertise.
As Operating Partner, Ravi embeds part-time with portfolio companies during critical technology development and government-contracting phases. He advises on SBIR/STTR strategy, OTA agreements, and DoD program alignment — the unglamorous but decisive work that determines whether defense-tech companies cross from prototype to program of record.
Aviataix does not hold office hours or an open application form. We invest through direct outreach, co-investor introductions, and referrals from our defense-sector network. If you are building in aerospace, defense, or autonomous systems and believe Aviataix is the right partner, reach us at [email protected].
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