The 2018 Finalists

DropCopter (California), an agriculture technology startup that has developed technology that allows farmers to pollinate orchards via drones. The recent decline of bee populations has raised pollination prices significantly, creating a market for alternative technologies such as Dropcopter.

• Genius NY-Winning Dropcopter Project Pollinates Apple Orchard
• To give bees a break, farmers pollinated an apple orchard using drones
• Dropcopter Secures $250,000 Investment
• ​No Bees? Just Call for a Drone

​ Fotokite  (Switzerland), combines aerial and ground-based robotics with flight control algorithms to create a kite-like tethered drone system that can fly fully autonomously for 24 hours.

• Fotokite Wins $1 Million in GENIUS NY Competition
• ​Fotokite Takes Home $1 Million
• Drones As First Responders

Precision Vision (New Mexico), creates image processing technology that makes real-time precision imaging affordable.

• ​Meet Precision Vision...

Quantifly (Michigan), simplifies and reduces the costs of parking and traffic studies through the unification of unmanned aerial systems,  machine vision and analytics by eliminating human error, mitigating safety risks, and centralizing harvested data.​

• Michigan start-up marries urban planning with aerial drone technology, advances in NY-based contest

TruWeather (Virginia), is building a service to improve the precision, accuracy and communication of weather intelligence.

• TruWeather Proves Why the Drone Industry Needs Better Weather Data
• TruWeather Helps Weather-Sensitive Businesses Cut Costs
• Startup Using Weather Data to Improve Drone Flight

UsPLM (Syracuse), provides a collaborative environment for to develop, test, deploy and safely operate a single or a fleet of unmanned aerial systems. ​

• Meet UsPLM...