Genius NY top-prize winner looks ahead to future growth

Representatives of Archangel Imaging of the United Kingdom hold the $1 million check as the grand-prize winner of round six of the Genius NY competition. The accelerator program, which CenterState CEO’s Tech Garden administers, held its finals night Nov. 3 at the Marriott Syracuse Downtown. (PHOTO CREDIT: GENIUS NY TWITTER)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A company from the United Kingdom is looking ahead to growing its business after winning the $1 million grand prize in round six of the Genius NY accelerator competition.  Archangel Imaging “deploys smart machines, alongside people, to protect valuable assets and at-risk staff in remote or challenging places,” as described in a […]

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A company from the United Kingdom is looking ahead to growing its business after winning the $1 million grand prize in round six of the Genius NY accelerator competition. 

Archangel Imaging “deploys smart machines, alongside people, to protect valuable assets and at-risk staff in remote or challenging places,” as described in a Nov. 3 news release from the office of Gov. Kathy Hochul. Whether it’s stealing cables, tapping oil, or poaching elephants for ivory, the company provides the ability for the security team to know before these incidents are about to happen and “immediately intervene or follow up.” 

“Being selected as the GENIUS NY 2022 grand-prize winner is an incredible achievement and recognition for our team, particularly in the context of such high-quality companies in the cohort this year,” Dan Sola, CEO of Archangel Imaging, said. “This investment enables us to create high value jobs and fuel long term growth and local partnerships. Throughout the program we have benefited from the amazing support and investment from GENIUS NY, CenterState CEO, and Empire State Development. Both local government and local businesses here have helped us to hit the ground running and we’re already hiring and engaging in joint development. We are proud to be a part of the Central New York community.” 

Participants are required to operate their business in Central New York for at least one year. The Genius NY program is the “world’s largest” business-accelerator competition focused on uncrewed systems, data to decision, and Internet of Things (IoT). Genius NY stands for Growing ENtrepreneurs & Innovators in UpState New York.

The year-long program awarded five finalist teams a total of $3 million at its finals night event at the Marriott Syracuse Downtown, including investments of $1 million and four $500,000 awards. 

Fusion Engineering of the Netherlands; AVSS - Aerial Vehicle Safety Solutions, Inc. of Canada; Wonder Robotics of Israel; and Dronehub of Poland were each awarded investments of $500,000.

CenterState CEO’s Tech Garden in Syracuse administers the program, which offers incubator space, company resources, programming and mentoring to accelerator finalists. To date, New York State has invested $30 million in Genius NY over the program’s six rounds. 

“The GENIUS NY programs represents our region’s commitment to advancing new and next stage innovations in the uncrewed, smart systems and IoT sectors,” Robert Simpson, president and CEO of CenterState CEO, said. “The investments these high-potential teams receive now will enable them to accelerate their growth and participate in the exciting progress that is driving our community forward. These international teams will continue in this program with the tools and resources they need to leverage these investments, advance their technologies and platforms, create jobs and contribute to the growing ecosystem we have established in Central New York.”    

Eric Reinhardt: