Genius NY announces 2020 semifinalists

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Genius NY has announced 19 semifinalists for the 2020 competition.

Genius NY, a business accelerator program at CenterState CEO’s Tech Garden, stands for Growing ENtrepreneurs & Innovators in UpState New York.

The Genius NY semifinalist companies are developing products and services in the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), internet of things (IoT) and big-data industries, CenterState CEO said in a news release. Genius NY selected the group from a “highly-competitive” pool of more than 400 submissions.

Of the 19 semifinalists, four teams are from Central New York and five are international teams representing Israel, United Kingdom, Australia, Portugal, and Switzerland, per the release.

The semifinalists are (in alphabetical order along with their base of operation):

• Aren — New York City
• Acoustic Wells — Boston
• Atolla Tech, LLC — New York City
• BloomOptix — Syracuse
• BotsAndUs — Bucks, United Kingdom
• Buffalo Automation — Buffalo
• Cognito Networks, Inc. — Saratoga, California
• Cortland Research — Homer
• DroneSeed — Seattle
• Eget Liber — Skaneateles
• Emerging Technology Ventures Inc. – Alamogordo, New Mexico
• EVA — Lisbon, Portugal
• GeoPipe — New York City
• INVOLI – Vaud, Switzerland
• L7 Defense — Mevasheret Zion, Israel
• NextGen Imaging Technologies — Windham, New Hampshire
• SafeFlight Corporation — Incline Village, Nevada
• Scanifly — New York City
• Skyy Network — New South Wales, Australia

“We are excited to have attracted a record number of applications from forward-thinking entrepreneurs for the fourth round of the Genius NY competition,” Eric Gertler, acting commissioner and president & CEO-designate of Empire State Development, said in the release. “Five of these companies will move on to the next round and a chance to take part in this unique business accelerator, which supports UAS startups in developing innovative next-generation technologies that will continue to build the region’s growing drone industry.”

The 19 teams are now working to complete a video presentation on why their company would be the best fit for Genius NY. A panel of local judges will review the presentations and select the five finalists participating in Genius NY in 2020.

Judges are looking for companies that will stay in the Central New York region and “utilize the ecosystem,” will scale and be successful, and “represent diversity of technology focus and team makeup.”

“The teams we have selected represent the very best of an incredibly competitive application pool,” Rick Clonan, VP of innovation and entrepreneurship at CenterState CEO, said. “These high-quality teams will benefit from the success of the program’s first three cohorts and will have the necessary resources to accelerate, grow and contribute to the region’s leading expertise and advancement of the UAS industry.”

The Genius NY program, funded by Empire State Development, will invest more than $3 million in the five finalist companies over the course of the yearlong competition, “making it the largest business accelerator competition for the UAS industry in the world.”

The grand prizes will be announced at Finals Night in April, where teams will compete live by pitching their technologies to a panel of judges. The grand prize investment of $1 million will be awarded while the remaining four teams each will receive a $500,000 investment.

To date, the program has invested more than $9 million in 17 companies.

The Genius NY program “builds on the progress” of CNY Rising, “the region’s award-winning strategic plan to generate robust economic growth and community development,” per the release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com