Consortiq are a Fareham based technology start-up in the burgeoning ‘drone’ industry.
Established in 2015 as a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) National Qualified Entity (NQE), the primary operation of their business has been to deliver training to people who wish to use drones for ‘Commercial Operations’. They have always sought to push the boundaries and challenge accepted practices to benefit not only their current and past customers, but also to shape better products for their future prospects.
Consortiq was formed from the merging of three businesses, as six professionals from manned & unmanned aviation and air traffic control saw a common vision and shared a collective goal. Our roots were laid down in Whiteley, utilising a serviced accommodation provider to maintain flexibility for us to scale up and down in the critical stages of growth. Inside of 12 months from taking on our first office space, we were growing in to a space big enough to support our growing team and product verticals.
2. What are you working on at the moment?
Consortiq are working on a number of exciting projects that are set to challenge legislation with the support of cross-sector regulators, leveraging our experience & rapport in the training sector to establish our position as a facilitator. We are also involved in the “Flying High” challenge that was won by the City of Southampton in 2018, that pulls together many organisations and stakeholders set on a path to become one of the first cities in the UK to utilise drone technology on a routine basis to support life-saving functions; connecting the hospitals in Portsmouth, Bournemouth and Newport with University Hospital Southampton. Consortiq lends its’ expertise in aviation regulation and complex Operational Safety Case development to the “Flying High” team with the view to beginning testing of this use-case in the coming months. Consortiq CEO, Paul Rigby, also serves as the chairperson of the CASCADE industry steering group, and many members of Consortiq’s team hold seats at influential industry panels such as the “Drone Industry Action Group” and “London Airspace Infringement Team”.
3. What do you like about Fareham Innovation Centre?
Aside from the obvious benefits of being in a brand-new building with lots of like-minded entrepreneurs, one of the more favourable and invaluable features that we are benefiting from is Oxford Innovation’s focus and drive to help small-businesses succeed. These words are not simply stamped above the door; the centre and regional management team are wholly driven to help leverage OXIN’s credibility to enable us to access forums never before possible. We are able to act with big company credibility as a small startup. It’s also really nice to be next to an airfield, especially since the arrival of Spitfire experience flights!
4. What projects/ambitions do you have for the future of your company?
Everyone at Consortiq are united in the vision of a future that involves the routine use of drone technology in just about every application you can imagine. We believe the ‘enabler’ for this will be public acceptance, and the projects we are working on will go a long way towards dispelling the negative connotations of the word ‘drone’. On a wider scale we want the UK to be the global epicentre for the proliferation of this technological evolution, and we believe that the South of England, specifically the Solent area, will play a key role in this.
