Buckinghamshire drone company celebrates 5th birthday as it awaits outcome of major USA competition

While UK autonomous drone company Flare Bright, based at Westcott Venture Park in Buckinghamshire, must celebrate its fifth Birthday Party virtually, the business is also on pins as it awaits the outcome of a major competition.

Flare Bright is a competition finalist awaiting the announcement of the winner of the prestigious Los Angeles New Mobility Challenge.

Flare Bright is one of the six Finalists out of 120 entrants. This is a major global start-up competition focused on innovative, zero-emission solutions for the challenges of urban mobility.

Flare Bright uses its innovative autonomous SnapShot nanodrone to measure winds in urban environments, allowing a map of predicted winds to be updated in real-time and create the infrastructure for other drones to fly safely.

This fits into the fourth edition of the LA New Mobility Challenge, which  invites start-ups and early-stage companies from around the world to address a critical issue in the urban mobility landscape: Solutions for Transporting Goods in Urban Environments.

The overall winner will be announced on Flare Bright’s birthday, so the company of 11 employees will be celebrating by watching the announcement at midnight UK time.

Flare Bright’s CEO, Kelvin Hamilton, said: “Our initial concept evolved throughout the years into a sought-after piece of technology. We are no longer seen as the newbies in the industry. We are now looked at as competitors and that’s a great measure of success.  We’ll be watching the announcement with excitement."

The drone company has also recently won a significant £226,000 UK Government contract, and two grants totalling £400,000. The company moved to new offices at Westcott Venture Park, which is recognised by innovators worldwide as a UK Centre of Excellence for Global Technology and has created the space for Flare Bright to grow and expand.

The LA New Mobility Challenge is a joint initiative of CoMotion, the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, the NewCities Foundation, and our partners at the UK Government / British Consulate-General in Los Angeles, SparkLabs Group, HNTB and Urban Movement Labs.