A team from Italy called Sentient Blue is the winner of the $1 million grand prize from Round Three of the Genius NY accelerator.

“We at Sentient Blue are honored to have been selected as the winner of GENIUS NY 2019,” says Saif Akanni, CEO and CTO of Sentient Blue.

“This award is a real milestone for Sentient Blue; it will allow us to establish the company in Central New York and accelerate our growth and development.”

Five finalist teams were awarded a total of $3 million during Genius NY's Finals event on Tuesday, April 9. EagleHawk One, CivDrone, Vermeer and ResilienX were each awarded investments of $500,000. ResilienX was also named the crowd favorite in a live poll taken during the event.

During the event, which was held at the Marriott Syracuse Downtown, the five teams pitched their business plans to a panel of judges and to a live audience. After the pitches were made, the teams were awarded one of five investments.

The teams will use their investments to continue to accelerate their growth and expand their presence in the region. Participants are required to operate their business in Central New York for at least one year.

The world’s largest business accelerator competition focused on unmanned systems, the Genius NY program is administered by the Tech Garden and CenterState CEO in Syracuse. It offers incubator space, company resources, programming and mentoring.