MP officially opens new Flare Bright facility at Westcott Venture Park

A new facility for autonomous drone developer Flare Bright has been unveiled by Greg Smith, MP for Buckingham at Westcott.

During the visit MP Greg Smith witnessed the company’s newly developed SnapShot drone technology, a micro-drone designed to capture instant aerial images in wind, adverse weather and constrained aerospace.

Earlier this year Flare Bright won an Entrepreneur Award, nominated by Greg Smith and supported by Octopus Group, the energy and financial services firm.

Flare Bright has since won a UK MOD Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) follow-up contract.  This project will deliver a fixed wing drone that can fly without GPS or any remote-control, when other drones are unflyable due to jamming and denial.  This latest contract of £425,391 lasts for 13 months and follows on from the completion of an initial £226,500 contract that successfully concluded in April 2021.

The company has also been selected for the prestigious United States Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment (AEWE).

Flare Bright moved to Westcott last year on the back of a £226,000 Ministry of Defence contract, starting with four staff members and now employs 14 people with the new facility accommodating this growth.

Chris Daniels, Chief Commercial Officer at Flare Bright, said: "Being at Westcott and in Buckinghamshire has been great for Flare Bright.  As we further grow our workforce, it is perfectly placed to attract talent to work here, and the facilities at Westcott are second to none.  We're delighted with our new building and excited about the future growth opportunities it gives us."

Greg Smith, MP said: “It's incredibly exciting to formally open Flare Bright's new expanded facilities here at Westcott in Buckinghamshire this morning. Flare Bright is exactly the sort of company we want and need to support the Buckinghamshire economy: high-tech innovators who even through the pandemic have expanded their headcount, creating new jobs by three-times. I wish them every success in the future and stand ready as the local MP to help and support them."

Jayne Cannell, Westcott Business Park Manager, said: “It was fantastic to welcome Buckingham MP Greg Smith to Westcott today and we are delighted to have been able to provide move on space at the Park to Flare Bright.

“The company has taken a further 2,207 sq ft of fully refurbished space on the Park on a 5 year lease.  Flare Bright is a brilliant illustration of how we can help start-up technology businesses and what a fantastic success story it has become.”

Developed using artificial intelligence, Flare Bright’s SnapShot technology is a fully autonomous system and will glide back to its user even without a GPS signal and in electromagnetically jammed environments.

SnapShot has a wide variety of applications from search and rescue to surveillance for police and fire operations. Roof and utilities assessments are made easier for construction firms, while commercial property and insurance businesses are another market. In all cases, continual aerial images are available without the complexity of a drone.