Ohio startup Lighthouse Avionics wins Accelerator place

Ohio based startup Lighthouse Avionics is amongst five teams selected by Empire State Development for round nine of GENIUS NY, the in‑residence accelerator for uncrewed systems that the organizers describe as the largest of its kind in the world. 

The cohort — selected from a global pool that reportedly included record interest from US companies — will compete for $3 million in direct investment, including a grand prize of up to $1 million and four further awards of $500,000 each. The teams will relocate to Syracuse, central New York State for a year as part of the program and will present to judges at Innovation Night on 7 May 2026. The date for these presentations was moved from fall into the spring to extend the cohort’s time in the community, according to the announcement.

Other than the Midwestern representative in Lighthouse, the other four finalists span international and local innovators:

Flox, from Stockholm, has developed edge‑deployed AI that can interpret and communicate with wildlife to steer animals away from critical areas.

Lamarr AI, a New York startup, uses drones and artificial intelligence to inspect building exteriors with the aim of providing faster, cheaper and more accurate data than traditional methods. 

‍Modovolo, another New York entrant, is building modular, longer‑endurance drones for commercial and defense use. 

Skyfire AI of New Jersey is developing autonomous drone swarms and accompanying AI to enhance situational awareness and response times for first responders and defense teams. The selections mirror the program’s stated focus on technologies that address defense, infrastructure and public‑safety needs.

Lighthouse Avionics is headquartered in Hilliard, Ohio and offers low‑cost optical monitoring solutions for low‑altitude airspace to address drone threats, bird strikes and compliance challenges. 

According to his Linkedin bio, CEO Tyler Bair also acts as CTO and graduated from The Ohio State University in 2019. He has since worked as an Electrical and Computer Engineer before founding Lighthouse.

The cohort of startups for the GENIUS NY accelerator will be the first cohort of the program to be hosted at CenterState CEO’s INSPYRE Innovation Hub, an expanded downtown Syracuse incubator created to support hardware and uncrewed systems development. With more than 90,000 square‑feet featuring makerspaces, a hardware center and a dedicated uncrewed‑systems test deck — amenities that, the organisation says, were designed with the needs of GENIUS NY companies in mind. 

Interestingly for our readers, organizers point to measurable local impact from previous cohorts. 

Since GENIUS NY began in 2017, the program says it has invested nearly $24 million in 42 companies from around the world; those companies, the announcement states, have subsequently raised more than $350 million in follow-on funding and created hundreds of new jobs in New York state. 

The accelerator’s benefits, as described by CentreState CEO, include mentorship, access to investors, industry‑specific platforms and credits from corporate partners — resources intended to help startups scale while meeting the program’s requirement to operate in Central New York for at least one year.