UWE Bristol graduate leads startup focused on improving e-scooter safety

A startup founded by a UWE Bristol graduate has secured £350,000 from investors to develop new technology to improve e-scooter safety.

Robotics graduate Faizan Mir, 24, landed the investment from SFC Capital for his AI company Nearhuman.

The business, based in the Launch Space incubator at UWE Bristol’s Enterprise Zone, has developed an intelligent safety camera that fits inside rental e-scooters and uses artificial intelligence to record information about customer journeys.

Installed inside the stem of the e-scooter, the forward-facing camera module can detect pavement riding, close calls with pedestrians and road hazards as they happen.

Data and footage can be shared with e-scooter operators to offer safety insights and communicated to local councils to provide street-level information on the condition of roads, cycle lanes and pavements.

According to Department for Transport figures, casualties from e-scooter collisions in Great Britain have risen from 484 in 2020 to 1,477 in 2025.

Faizan was drawn to tackling the issue of e-scooter safety when his friend was struck by one, and it sparked a discussion about potential solutions to reduce the accident rate.

He said: “The hire e-scooters and bikes are making cities much better - they are an eco-friendly mode of transport, but there are a lot of safety issues with them. I've had incidents using them myself - there are many challenges. Some people ride on the pavement and it makes it unsafe for other pavement users.

“As the number of cities offering rental e-scooter trials grows, so does the accident rate. And there are lots of accidents that happen that don’t get reported or recorded. I recently read a study that found that e-scooter accidents happen 20 times more per mile than cars, which is significantly higher.

“We see our technology as a way of helping make micromobility safer.”

Faizan, who graduated with a first in BEng (Hons) Robotics in 2024, was inspired to launch a business focused on solving societal problems by his father and school principal during his childhood in Kashmir.

He said: “One of the things that resonates is that I built an Iron Man suit that threw out flames to look cool, and I took it to school and showed it to classmates. Instead of giving me a punishment, my principal said ‘You're free to go and use our laboratories to build things, but build things for a better good’.

“That's the same teaching my father gave to me. He said ‘How will a flamethrower help someone? If you want to build something in your life, build something that will help humanity and make this world a better place’. That's the philosophy I'm living with.”

During his time at UWE Bristol, Faizan served as a Peer Assisted Learning leader for robotics and electronics students, a Student Ambassador, a Student Life Assistant, an undergraduate researcher in Bristol Robotics Laboratory, a research associate in the Mechatronics Lab, and an associate lecturer. He benefited from a Student Ventures Summer Scholarship in 2024 and won the UWE Entrepreneurial Futures Award in 2025 (supported by a donation from UWE Bristol alumnus Peter Fane). Launch Space has also supported the development of his business.

Working alongside Faizan at Nearhuman are fellow UWE Bristol graduates Amin Alhawary (AI and Research Engineer), Hatim Shaherawala (Research and Development Engineer), Tobias Dawson (Hardware Development Intern) and Yerim Mohamed (Cyber Security Engineer). The team also includes Chief Operating Officer Ali Ekbal, Research and Development Engineer Dushyant Goel, and Legal Intern Cameron Setiadi.

Of the investment of £350,000 in the business, Faizan said: “It kind of felt unreal. Once the money had landed, I couldn't believe it and was in a shock for a few days.

“We had interest from investors in the USA but I wanted to get a UK investor on board, such as SFC. The UK has given me so much and I wanted to give back to the UK, and the university.”

Faizan said attempts have previously been made to mount safety cameras to e-scooters in Australia and Europe, but these camera modules were larger and not able to be housed inside the e-scooter stem.

Nearhuman’s camera module uses an edge (on-device) AI system that operates privately and independently of cloud connectivity. Future areas for development include enabling the camera module to slow down the speed of the e-scooter automatically in real time, depending on its surroundings and rider behaviour. Faizan said his company’s technology also has applications in other sectors.

On the impact of the University on his journey to becoming a technology entrepreneur, Faizan added: “The support I’ve received from UWE has been incredibly valuable in helping me build the business. I’m particularly grateful to the Student Ventures and Launch Space teams.

“In Lauch Space, the incubation manager Mark Corderoy has been our main advisor and the main believer in what we want to do. He has guided us in the right direction and helped us. The startup community at Launch Space has also been great - we are all in the same boat and there's a lot to learn from each other.”