Company Name: Fusion Engineering
Company HQ: Delft, The Netherlands
Team Size: 14
Focus: Flight Controllers
Interview with:
Robert Crone, Founder/CEO
Marwan Hussein, Business Developer

​When and how did your company start?
Sharing a technical background from TU Delft in the Netherlands, our founders originally got the idea of creating a drone that can perform all sorts of maintenance functions back in 2017, sort of like a flying robot. However, we noticed that there were several underlying deficiencies in the flight behavior of existing drones (and back then, ours as well) that needed to be addressed first, so we decided to take a step back and tackle the issue at its roots. Having observed a large boom in the relevance of commercial drones in today’s applications, no matter the field, we’ve been focusing exclusively on creating the industry’s next generation of flight controllers since 2018.

Who is your ideal customer?
Given the importance of our solution to the functionality of every drone, our aim is to supply multi-rotor drone manufacturers with scalable businesses who already have a foothold in the industry. This does not exclude us from working with smaller companies that are also building drones or are looking to replace their current flight controller!

What can we expect from your company in the near future?
Ever since we produced our prototype, the “Fusion Reflex” Introductory Model, we had mainly been focusing on maturing our technology with smaller drone manufacturers through a series of technical collaborations, alongside whom we also aim to grow. On the engineering side, we are currently at a stage where our maiden flight controller is undergoing its final iteration of refinement and polishing. Our collaborations continue to grow as we explore new types of applications we can confidently play a key role in enabling, such as VTOL drones, heavy-lift drones…etc. This ties in directly with our commercial endeavors as well. With our product nearing completion, we are actively seeking opportunities to kick-start Fusion’s integration into the market, whether it’s in Europe or elsewhere in the world, which is where GENIUS NY really comes in handy!

Why are you excited about GENIUS NY?
Thus far, our operations have mostly been centered within Europe, where commercial drones have only recently become popular for being more than just flying cameras. Coming to the United States, where the industry is more established and mature, a plethora of new opportunities have presented themselves for us to explore. Being able to do this through the Genius NY program has helped us seamlessly adapt to this market. The resources we get through the GENIUS NY program not only help us address our immediate needs, but also shed light on what we should focus on and consider as we grow in the near future.
Having access to the industry’s certifying bodies has also proven to be quite helpful, considering the complicated nature of acquiring said certifications, particularly for flight controllers. This is proving to be vital to our operations as we get the opportunity to dive deeper into the requirements of each of the certifications before anyone else, and in much greater detail.
Getting the privilege of visiting companies in adjacent industries has also helped us understand where exactly Fusion Engineering sits in the value chain and how we can maximize our output, without interrupting current procedures and supply chains.
Lastly, having spoken to several founders based in Syracuse, we were able to gain more insight into how their companies have grown, how they run their teams, and what difficult decisions they had to make along the way; questions you cannot answer by reading manuals.   

What are you most looking forward to while staying in Syracuse?
We heard that the winter season gets quite intense in Syracuse. Luckily, some of us are avid skiers! We are eager to hit the slopes when the snow has settled in!
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What will you do with the GENIUS funds?
In order to align our technical capacity with our commercial outlook, we will aim to expand our engineering team to accommodate for the expected growth. Additionally, with a large portion of our anticipated customer-base being in North America, we will invest in setting up an entity in the United States as our first step towards addressing the global market’s needs as well!

Learn more about Fusion Engineering: https://fusion.engineering/
Get tickets to attend the GENIUS NY Pitch Finals Night on Nov. 3rd: ​www.centerstateceo.com/news-events/genius-ny-pitch-finals