SME Spotlight: Q&A with Briteyellow, an MK:5G Accelerator SME With a Novel Real-time Data Sharing Solution for Built Environment

Briteyellow is part of our industry-leading MK:5G Accelerator business cohort.  We set out on a mission to ask Briteyellow’s team a few questions about what it means to be a forward-thinker and a trail-blazer business in the built environment, an industry where novel solutions and cutting-edge tech innovations aren’t always easy to develop and commercialise. In this short Q&A session, we spoke to Fredi Nonyelu, Briteyellow’s Chief Executive, who has agreed to share his thoughts, insights and reflections on the company’s day to day life.

Company overview

Briteyellow was founded in December 2002. It offers ultra-precision indoor location-based information systems that provide deeper insights for better decision making inside buildings. These innovative information systems can be used by transport and healthcare providers, as well as local authorities that need digital information indoors for better planning, benchmarking, service optimisation, monitoring, tracking and user guidance.

What was the driving idea behind the founding of Briteyellow?

Our idea was to make decision-making inside buildings as easy as using satnav. People spend 90% of their time inside buildings and yet we lack the real-time information about who is inside, where they are, or if someone’s health and wellbeing are at risk. This lack of data sharing has proved to cause anxiety and distress for many in various critical situations. For instance, real-time data can help when someone chooses the wrong exit at a train station, misses a vital connection, or is separated from their loved ones in a busy, dynamic environment, e.g. a shopping mall. We believe every built environment should be smart and therefore we have created a technology platform that makes it possible.

What makes Briteyellow stand out from the crowd?

Indoor mapping solutions that use wireless and sensor fusion technologies are state of the art. However, they require offerings from several different companies to be integrated, which is both complex and time-consuming. Briteyellow eliminates this complexity, creating a single digital twin platform that provides unrivalled depth and precision for indoor location insights. Briteyellow stands out through our vertically integrated indoor positioning, navigation, and tracking systems, smart wearables, and ultra-precision sensors.

What Briteyellow’s projects to date are you most proud of?

Development of our BriteCare product, a remote monitoring smart wearable and an app that helps to protect vulnerable and elderly people who live independently or in isolation. We have developed this device in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, as we pivoted to provide for the first time a digital healthcare solution. BriteCare smart wearables have integrated location sensors that track individual user location with the precision of a few centimetres. These smart devices also detect an individual’s vital health status and send notification alerts in an emergency such as a fall. This can help the elderly and vulnerable to live independently and happily, knowing that they are never left unattended.

Can tech innovation change our lives for better?

Tech innovation has tremendous power to change our lives for better. We already see this every day in so many ways, for example, the ease and speed with which we can access information anywhere. The amazing thing is that the rate of innovation is accelerating. We are witnessing how quickly science has created a vaccine for Covid-19, compared to how vaccines were developed in the past. While tech innovation can give us better tools, we must choose how we use it to live, work and play better.

What product will you be developing within the MK:5G Accelerator programme?

We will be trialling our BriteCare remote care monitoring smart wearable and app as part of the MK:5G Accelerator.

ABOUT MK:5G ACCELERATOR

MK:5G Accelerator is an innovation and business growth programme for startups and SMEs, is focused on four key innovation challenges in Mobility Data, Health & Wellbeing, Low Carbon Energy and Energy Data. The programme is part of the wider MK:5G project, funded by its collaborating partners and South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP) via its Local Growth Fund programme. The MK:5G Accelerator is delivered by Connected Places Catapult and True Altitude.