Software firm wins $1 million grand prize in Genius NY business competition in Syracuse

Participants in the Genius NY business competition must spend a year working in the Tech Garden in downtown Syracuse, where they receive office space and assistance to help bring their products to market.
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Syracuse, N.Y. — Airtonomy of Grand Forks, North Dakota is the grand prize winner in this year’s Genius NY business competition.

The company’s software automates collection, packaging and analysis of data gathered by autonomous vehicles and sensors, specifically targeting critical energy infrastructure. Airtonomy, founded in 2018, has 25 employees.

The firm won $1 million.

This is the fifth round of the Genius NY program, which is funded by the state and administered by CenterState CEO at the Tech Garden business center in downtown Syracuse. Five finalists compete for $3 million in direct investments.

The five companies moved into the Tech Garden earlier this year. Genius NY participants are required to commit to operating their businesses in Central New York for at least one year.

The contest focuses on firms working with drones and related technologies.

The other four finalists won $500,000. They are:

Airial Robotics (Hamburg, Germany): Airial Robotics develops commercial unmanned aerial vehicles for surveillance, logistics and agriculture modeled after gyrocopter/helicopter hybrids that are challenging industry performance limits for safety, payload, range and speed.

CarScanner (Krakow, Poland): CarScanner develops a used-car inspection robot that autonomously moves around a car and automatically detects scratches, dents, repainted body surfaces and other damages with structured light, thermography and machine-learning algorithms.

Circle Optics (Rochester, New York): Circle Optics develops high-resolution, wide field-of-view imaging systems that enable real-time capture without the time and expense of post-processing required by other multicamera systems.

WindShape (Geneva, Switzerland): WindShape develops indoor weather simulation technology to test and certify drones under controllable and repeatable flight conditions to enable autonomous and scalable drone applications.

Since 2017, Genius NY has invested $12 million in 22 companies and brought them to Central New York to participate in the yearlong program. Companies receive assistance with product development and business development, plus networking opportunities with investors and business leaders.

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