SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The seventh round of the Genius NY business-accelerator program at the Tech Garden in Syracuse has five finalists looking ahead to the final pitch event in October. Genius NY stands for Growing ENtrepreneurs & Innovators in UpState New York. The teams are from New York City, Maryland, Michigan, the United Kingdom, and […]
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The seventh round of the Genius NY business-accelerator program at the Tech Garden in Syracuse has five finalists looking ahead to the final pitch event in October.
Genius NY stands for Growing ENtrepreneurs & Innovators in UpState New York.
The teams are from New York City, Maryland, Michigan, the United Kingdom, and Florida, Empire State Development (ESD) announced.
The program is described as the “largest business accelerator for the UAS industry in the world.” An uncrewed-aircraft system (UAS) includes a drone and equipment used to control its flight. A drone is also referred to in the industry as an unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV.
The five finalists are the following startups.
• Voltela is from the Brooklyn borough of New York City and provides connectivity assurance for commercial drones. “Remote pilots must rely on reliable Command and Control connections. The mobile network was not built for aerial connectivity and changing the infrastructure is not viable. Voltela’s patented software operates with off-the-shelf modems enabling prioritized connections with guaranteed low latency via any mobile network. Voltela’s superior connectivity performance achieves aviation-grade reliability levels and is the foundation for building the Aerial Virtual Network Operator,” as described in an ESD news release.
• Aloft from Silver Spring, Maryland is an FAA-approved UAS service supplier (USS) for LAANC (low altitude authorization and notification capability), “powering the vast majority of recreational and commercial airspace authorizations … Through state-of-the-art technologies and sophisticated data services, Aloft aims to enhance the safety and efficiency of drone operations, facilitating their integration into the National Airspace System,” ESD said.
• Blueflite from Detroit, Michigan is a company designing and manufacturing a logistics drone platform to solve the “modern-day challenges in the logistics industry. Blueflite’s drones offer faster and greener deliveries at a lower cost compared to conventional transport. The unique and patent pending tiltrotor design features vectored thrust giving it unrivaled maneuverability and the ability to operate under challenging conditions. The digital element of the platform allows for integration into an all-automated supply chain for high-speed deliveries at scale,” ESD stated.
• Greenjets from Milton Keynes, United Kingdom is building next generation electric propulsion systems for advanced air mobility. Its “ducted fan propulsion technology is the quietest, safest and most efficient of its class. The Greenjets team has over 300 years of deep domain knowledge carried over from Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems & Formula 1. Learnings from these experiences are reflected in a unique design & manufacturing methodology, which allows production of propulsion systems at an unrivaled pace, the release contended.
• Votix of Weston, Florida is an “American Enterprise Drone Orchestration and Automation platform and the first universal (hardware-agnostic) drone operating system for commercial operations at scale. “VOTIX integrates the entire drone ecosystem, ensuring high-quality results, and safe and robust operations, guaranteeing compliance with regulators and stakeholders, creating synergies within the industry’s ecosystem, reducing process time and generating superior intelligence. VOTIX supports VLOS/EVLOS while enabling BVLOS operations, autonomous flights, real-time cloud video streaming and AI, precision landing, drone-in-a-box integration and much more,” per the ESD description.
Starting July 12, the five selected companies were scheduled to move into downtown Syracuse where they will begin to refine work on their business cases, which they’ll present at the pitch finals event on Oct. 4.
The five finalists were selected from a pool of more than 450 submissions. They will compete for $3 million in direct investment, with one grand prize of up to $1 million and four $500,000 awards.
Supported by the CNY Rising Upstate Revitalization Initiative and administered by CenterState CEO and the Tech Garden in downtown Syracuse, these startup, uncrewed-systems industry companies will participate in a yearlong program.
“The GENIUS NY accelerator has helped to establish Central New York as a hub for uncrewed aerial systems by attracting the next generation of innovative entrepreneurs,” said Empire State Development president, CEO, and commissioner Hope Knight. “New York State’s ongoing UAS investment will ensure that continued industry leadership, bringing top-quality jobs and growth to the region and beyond.”
Genius NY participants are required to commit to operating their business in Central New York for at least one year.