SYRACUSE, N.Y. — CenterState CEO has announced the six finalists in the second installment of Genius NY, a business-accelerator program at CenterState CEO’s Syracuse Technology Garden.
The six teams were chosen from among 16 competition semifinalists that the organization announced last month.
Genius NY stands for Growing ENtrepreneurs & Innovators in UpState New York.
The announcement of the finalists was part of an event dubbed, “Innovation Celebration” held Tuesday at the CNY Biotech Accelerator at 841 E. Fayette St. in Syracuse, CenterState CEO said in a news release issued Wednesday.
Those attending included upstate New York investors, community leaders, and program partners.
The finalists will move into the Tech Garden in January to begin competing for $3 million in prizes. The companies, which are developing “innovations” in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), were selected from an original pool of more than 250 submissions.
The six finalists include a team from Central New York, a team that is co-founded by a woman, and a team from outside the U.S., CenterState CEO said.
Each of the finalists will begin the program focused on “enhancing” their business plan. All six teams will pitch their technologies at an event in April to a panel of judges and audience of more than 200 people.
The teams will be competing for one of three grand-prize investments: $1 million, $600,000, and $400,000. The remaining three runner-up teams will each receive a $250,000 investment.
The finalists
The CenterState CEO provided the following descriptions of the six finalists selected for Genius NY 2.0.
- UsPLM of Syracuse “provides a collaborative environment for all stakeholders” to develop, test, deploy, and safely operate a single or a fleet of UAS. UsPLM can integrate UAS, Internet-of-Things (IoT) and product lifecycle management (PLM) technologies, “which is missing in the current UAS ecosystem.”
- Dropcopter of California is an agriculture technology startup that has developed patent-pending technology to allow farmers to pollinate orchards via drones. The recent decline of bee populations has raised pollination prices “significantly, creating a compelling” market for alternative technologies such as Dropcopter.
- Fotokite of Switzerland combines aerial and ground-based robotics with patented flight-control algorithms to create a “kite-like” tethered drone system, which actively uses the tether to fly for 24-hours “fully autonomously.”
- Precision Vision of New Mexico creates image-processing technology that makes real-time precision imaging an “affordable reality.” Precision imaging locates each pixel at a known 2D or 3D referenced location in every image. The company has “unique” software and knowledge to provide “low-cost, real-time” precision imaging to open new markets.
- Quantifly of Michigan is an IoT product that “simplifies and reduces” the costs of parking and traffic studies through the unification of UAS, machine vision, and analytics by “eliminating human error, mitigating safety risks, and centralizing harvested data.” It is the “first to market,” and the firm’s product aims to be the “quintessential” app for urban planners focused on smart-city applications and sustainability.
- TruWeather of Virginia is building a service to “improve” the precision, accuracy and communication of weather intelligence specifically for the UAV enterprise. The company will develop, commercialize and market the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) weather risk management service for beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) UAV operations and offer it as a SaaS (software as a service) business.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
PHOTO CAPTION: CenterState CEO has announced six finalists in the second round of the Genius NY business-accelerator competition. The teams will be competing for one of three grand-prize investments, including $1 million, $600,000 and $400,000. The remaining three runner-up teams will each receive a $250,000 investment. (Eric Reinhardt / BJNN file photo)