Thriving start-up business picks up major honour

A start-up business specialising in state-of-the-art technology has won a top award.

FlareBright, based at Westcott Venture Park, was nominated by Buckingham MP Greg Smith for an Entrepreneur Award supported by Octopus Group the energy and financial services firm.

The awards are designed to celebrate entrepreneurs across the UK who have thrived during the pandemic and made the most of lockdown by starting or growing their business, innovating to survive the challenges, or supporting their staff and local community.

FlareBright is a spin-out company from Cranfield University and moved to Westcott last year on the back of a £226,000 Ministry of Defence contract.

The company has developed SnapShot, a micro-drone designed to capture instant aerial images in wind, adverse weather and constrained aerospace. Developed using artificial intelligence, it 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.

Kelvin Hamilton, CEO FlareBright, said: “It is wonderful to see our efforts recognised in such a prestigious way in these challenging times and I would like to thank Greg Smith MP for the nomination.

“Despite the pandemic, we have continued to flourish at Westcott which has been an integral part of that success. It was one of the few venues that permitted us to utilise the facilities during lockdown, which was important for permitting development and delivering on the contracts and grants we have received during lockdown.”

As a winner FlareBright will become a supporter of the Entrepreneurs Network, a think tank for Britain’s most ambitious entrepreneurs.

Jayne Cannell, Westcott Business Park Manager, added: “FlareBright is a brilliant illustration of how we can help small business and what a fantastic success story it has become. We are proud to support Westcott businesses through lockdown and congratulate the FlareBright team on their award.”

Photograph from left to right: Juliet Dudley, Nick Ikic, Kelvin Hamilton, Paul Genet and Dylan Palmer-Jorge.