Syracuse, N.Y. — Sentient Blue, a company from Italy that is developing micro gas turbines to power drones, has won the $1 million grand prize in the Genius NY business competition in Syracuse.
Sentient Blue was selected as the grand prize winner by a panel of seven judges at an event attended by 500 people at the Marriott Syracuse Downtown Tuesday evening.
“This award is a real milestone for Sentient Blue,” said Saif Akanni, CEO and chief technology officer of Sentient Blue. “It will allow us to establish the company in Central New York and accelerate our growth and development.”
The four runners-up in the competition — Resilienx from Syracuse, EagleHawk from Buffalo, Vermeer from Brooklyn and Civdrone from Israel — each received $500,000.
All the companies have set up offices in the Syracuse Technology Garden, a business accelerator operated by CenterState CEO on Harrison Street. They will be required to operate their businesses in Central New York for at least a year under the terms of the Genius NY program.
The five companies were selected in December from among 350 applicants to participate in the program. All five teams pitched their business plans to the panel of judges at Tuesday night’s event.
