AUVSI’s NOVUS Unmanned, held in conjunction with Investorfest, will bring together carefully curated companies with innovative technology and investors who are helping drive the unmanned systems industry.
 
“What we are seeing now is that automated and unmanned vehicles are migrating from government and military to the mainstream, so a lot of innovation is happening,” says Gopan Madathil, an entrepreneurial marketer and fund-raising coach who is president of Investorfest.
 
The industry has now reached the point where it needs support services, such as traffic management or detection services, Madathil says, and NOVUS Unmanned plans to present a variety of companies with promising technology to present them to investors.
 
“We are showcasing the best of the best at this event,” he says, “not just drone makers or service vendors providing drone services.”
 
Investorfest has worked with 160 companies, helping them hone their pitches to attract investors. Of those companies, 110 of them have raised about $400 million in funding.
 
Ten companies will present to investors at NOVUS Unmanned, scheduled for Nov. 1 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport.
 
Among them are:
 

• AGI (OneSky), whose software allows mission planning and visualization, for land, sea, air and space systems
• ANRA Technologies, which provides operators and analysts access to command and control software for one or multiple UAS operations
• Ascent AeroSystems, which builds Sprite, a portable, rugged drone
• Digital Aerolus, which builds UAS for use in confined, GPS-compromised locations
• Drone Complier, which helps companies manage planning, UAS flights and safety compliance
• EZ3D, which allows users to photograph any building, inspect the roof, and create 99 percent accurate measurements for estimates
• Luftronix Precision Navigation, whose software allows drones to fly precise paths and avoid obstacles
• Aerovate, which builds lightweight hubs for electric aircraft
• Liquid Piston, which builds advanced, rotary, multi-fuel engines
• Seatrec, whose products harvest energy from temperature changes in the environment.

 
The companies come from across the country, from Oregon to Kansas to the Washington, D.C. area.
 
“Innovation knows no geography,” Madathil says.