The founder of Virginia-based defense startup Govini was arrested on charges of attempting to solicit a pre-teen girl for sexual contact in Pennsylvania, authorities said Monday.

The founder, Eric Gillespie, 57, was charged with four felonies, including multiple counts of unlawful contact with a minor, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.

Gillespie, who lives in Pittsburgh, was denied bail by the judge, citing flight risk and concerns over public safety.

His company has a $900-million U.S. government contract and multiple deals with the Defense Department.

Govini, which last month announced it had passed $100 million in annual recurring revenue and is considered a prominent “unicorn” in the defense technology space, is a key partner in the U.S. Army’s Next Generation Command Control program.

Pentagon officials told CNBC they are looking into the arrest and possible security issues.

Gillespie lists himself as executive chairman of the company on his LinkedIn page.

Gillespie was considered an expert in transparency in government and was appointed to the Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee by the Obama Administration in 2014.

The White House has referred all security clearance questions to the Department of Defense.

An agent posed as an adult on an online chat platform that the AG’s office said was often utilized by offenders who try to arrange meetings with children, and engaged in a conversation with Gillespie.

The AG’s office said Gillespie then made attempts to arrange a meeting with who he believed was a pre-teenage girl in Lebanon County, which is located near Hershey, Pennsylvania. Gillespie also alluded to methods he used to contact children, and other evidence was found.

Govini did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The state attorney general’s office would not comment on questions about electronic devices seized during the sting. The AG’s office is asking the public to come forward with any other information on the case.

Govini, along with Anduril Industries, Palantir, Striveworks, Instant Connect Enterprise, Research Innovations, Inc., Microsoft and Lockheed Martin are also a part of the $99.6 million U.S. Army’s Next Generation Command and Control program.

NGC2 is a program for the U.S. Army to transform command and control operations by ensuring commanders have access to critical real-time data and infrastructure in areas where communications may be disrupted.

According to the company, Govini’s suite of AI-enabled applications is used by every department of the U.S. military and other federal agencies. The access to sensitive information is vast.

The software analyzes supply chains and critical details of companies being considered by the U.S. government for acquisition, enabling the U.S. military to make informed decisions.

In a recent Bain Capital press release announcing a $150m investment of Govini, Scott Kirk, Partner at Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, said, “We’re thrilled to support Govini’s next phase of growth as it continues to revolutionize how the U.S. government acquires and deploys the capabilities that keep us safe.”

Bain has not responded to CNBC’s multiple emails for comment.

Peter Morales started Code Metal two years ago, jumping into the market for artificial intelligence coding tools at a time when AI companies were rapidly changing the market for software development.

Now he’s got $36.5 million in the bank, thanks to an investment led by venture firm Accel Partners, known for early bets on Facebook, Dropbox and Atlassian.

Code Metal’s technology allows software engineers to write code once, then automatically translate it into any other programming language so they can ship new features faster and to a wider swath of users. Morales, who was previously technology chief at a gaming company, said Code Metal’s offering is particularly appealing to developers working on software to run appliances, consumer electronics, factory robotics, autos and medical devices.

Those are industries with products that contain a wide array of chips, which come with different software development kits, operating systems and code libraries. Morales gave the example of an automaker creating a feature for a new model sports car running on the latest Nvidia chip, and the challenge of porting the code behind the feature to the company’s older line of minivans. Code Metal’s AI would automatically handle the translation.

Morales is positioning the company as distinct from so-called vibe-coding platforms like Cursor or Anthropic’s Claude Code, which allow users to automate much of the process of writing software with text prompts.

“Vibe coding is all about explaining an initial idea in text, and generating code that will get you started developing your minimum viable product,” Morales said. “This is not where most companies spend their time. Code Metal focuses on bringing code to production. That requires strong guarantees the code we’re converting is accurate, compliant and working as expected.”

Morales said large language models alone can’t provide this level of certainty, so Code Metal employs what computer scientists call formal methods to check the code and make it’s been translated correctly.

The company, based in Boston, says it’s already struck contracts worth tens of millions of dollars with commercial and public sector clients, including the U.S. Air Force, L3Harris and Raytheon as well as some automotive suppliers and consumer electronics brands.

Accel’s Steve Loughlin, who led the deal, said Code Metal is the fastest growing company in his firm’s portfolio of early-stage startups, and that demand for its technology is surging.

“The market opportunity is practically uncapped here,” Loughlin said, “to help people develop on the edge much faster and modernize legacy code.”

Code Metal’s earlier backers J2 ventures and Shield Capital also participated in the round, along with Bosch ventures and Raytheon’s RTX Ventures.

WATCH: The rise of AI ‘vibe coding’