Pittsburgh, PA— August 13, 2015 — Commercial drone manufacturer Identified Technologies is one of seven companies named a Start-Up of the Year finalist by the Pittsburgh Technology Council as part of its annual Pittsburgh Tech 50 Awards.

 

The Tech 50 recognizes southwestern Pennsylvania’s most successful, innovative and thought-leading technology companies, which have become the backbone of Pittsburgh’s new economy. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held on Thursday, October 29, 2015 at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh.

 

“This recognition is a tribute to our entire Identified Technologies family. It’s an honor for me to work with such a gifted and enthusiastic team,” said Identified Technologies CEO Dick Zhang.

 

Zhang founded Identified Technologies in 2013 while studying mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was involved with the school’s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception Laboratory and its research into small unmanned aerial vehicles. The company won Penn’s Y-Prize Business Plan Competition in 2013 after developing a software and hardware platform based off SUAVs. Zhang moved to Pittsburgh in late 2013 after being accepted into AlphaLab Gear’s inaugural class. Since then, Zhang has been selected as a Pittsburgh Business Times Fast Tracker, Ernest and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, and raised over $2 million in venture capital funding.

 

Identified Technologies has found its market niche in using self-piloting drones to quickly and accurately perform near real-time aerial site mapping and monitoring that traditionally has been done by manned helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, or ground level survey crews. These expensive or slow options often forced crews to risk using old, inaccurate information.

 

Mascaro Construction site manager and Jon Machen shares his own experience, “We had outdated topographical maps when we budgeted for the earthwork on this site. Our estimates were 20% off, in the wrong direction. We were the ones that had to absorb that risk and error. I wish I had Identified Technologies data before we started.”

 

Identified Technologies has grown to over a dozen full-time employees, and moved out of AlphaLab Gear’s accelerator to its present location near Bakery Square in April of this year.

 

The Tech 50 Awards represent transformative technology centers of excellence with tech companies at all stages of growth. Zhang gave credit to the support Identified Technologies has received.

 

Zhang said, “We would not be where we are today without the support of Alphalab Gear, Innovation Works, Birchmere Ventures, Carnegie Mellon University, and the region’s entire entrepreneurial ecosystem. None of this would have been possible without the Pittsburgh startup community and we are deeply grateful to be a part of it,” said Zhang.
 

About Identified Technologies

Industrial leaders use Identified Technologies fully-managed commercial drone solution to increase project visibility and team productivity. Construction and excavation companies reduce their costs and win more business using job site data and analytics. Identified empowers ENR 400 companies, including PJ Dick, EQT, Vulcan, and Casella, with the ability to track progress on highways, well pads, mines, and landfills in near real-time. Identified’s integrated software and services take care of everything from FAA compliance and flight planning to advanced analytics.