​Based in Syracuse, New York, the GENIUS NY program has helped more than a two dozen companies scale their operations and make the necessary connections to secure partners, customers and follow-on funding. Those companies selected as finalists spend a year at a Syracuse-based startup incubator where they have office space and amenities plus workshops, training, mentoring and opportunities for networking and follow-on funding. Since 2017, GENIUS NY has invested over $15 million in 26 early stage companies from around the world.

Among the winners so far have been Fotokite, of Switzerland, who won in 2018. Fotokite technology uses a tether combined with an onboard IMU to compute the vehicle’s position relative to the user. This allows for quick deployment and controlled flight by virtually anyone and obviates the need for complex start-up protocols, GPS dependency, trained pilots, and bulky remote controls. Fotokite supports first responders and has partnered with firefighting firm Pierce Manufacturing as well as Axon. 

“Bringing Fotokite to the U.S. has always been important for the success of our startup,” said Chris McCall, former CEO of Fotokite. “GENIUS NY has accelerated this process for us even more than we could have expected, resulting in game-changing speed of growth, incredible local and national network connections, and highly curated business advice to help prepare and scale up operations.”

Last October, Airtonomy, a team from North Dakota, won the $1 million prize. The startup is the leader of enterprise-scale autonomous robotics for delivering precise inspection insights. Airtonomy is a SaaS/RaaS company that enables scaled, autonomous robotic harvesting of unstructured asset data by frontline workers, specifically for machine perception, within the energy and utility sectors, in a $6.5B domestic market.

GENIUS NY is looking for companies who are focused on uncrewed systems, IoT, big data and robotics. To apply and see program requirements visit, www.geniusny.com/about.

The entry deadline for the upcoming accelerator is June 14. The program is funded by Empire State Development and administered at CenterState CEO’s Tech Garden incubator in Syracuse, New York.