ABout
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OVERVIEW

Hydra is a British drone technology business founded in October 2019 to reinvent heavy lift UAV’s and pioneer the hybrid Jet-Electric concept. Our unparalleled lift capacity, speed and range allow for deployment in any industry sector.

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Team

The team have designed, developed and flown many different multi-rotor drones in various challenges over the last 15 years, these include: MOD grand challenge (final), DARPA UAVForge competition (Winner),  IMechE UAS Challenge (Winner) and BAE Systems UAV Swarm challenge. We recently won a £50k innovation grant from the UK government as part of the business-led innovation competition. In January 2023, we were successfully awarded a £250,000 contract for the MoD Royal Navy (OCTO) UAS Heavy-Lift Capability DE&S Future Capability Group (FCG).

Dr Stephen Prior
CEO and CO-Founder

A recognised drone expert and a Reader in Unmanned Air Vehicles at the University of Southampton. He was a drone consultant on a £0.6m Hydrogen Fuel Cell drone project for Innovate UK (2017-19) and the Tokyo Olympics (2021). In addition to that, Dr Stephen Prior was also a Co-I on a £4.2m EPSRC Future Cities project (2016-21) with Leeds, Birmingham and UCL. He is currently a Co-I on a 4-year £1.2m EPSRC project investigating aerodynamics and aeroacoustics of closely coupled rotors

Dr Angelo Grubisic
CO-FOUNDER

Dr Angelo Grubisic, PhD Advanced Propulsion, MSc, BEng (Hons), was an Aerospace Systems Engineer, a lecturer of Astronautics and Advanced Propulsion at Southampton University and an avid Wingsuit BASE Jumper. Angelo consulted for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the European Space Agency, developing the solar electric propulsion system for the BepiColombo mission to Mercury which launched in 2018 and is scheduled to arrive in 2025. Sadly, Angelo lost his life whilst flying his wingsuit at a festival in Saudi Arabia. Although this charismatic man died doing what he loved, his death was premature at 38 years old and he still had so much more to give this world; from his pioneering engineering to his enthusiastic approach to teaching and education.

Anthony Ganjou
Investor

An entrepreneur and investor with a proven track record of founding, building and selling businesses at the cutting edge of media, marketing and technology innovation. Anthony has founded / co-founded and overseen the creation, branding, strategic planning, development, commercialisation, productisation and growth of 11 multi-million pound businesses across multiple industries in the last 12 years. All built from scratch with four successful exits totalling £40m+.

Prof Adam Beaumont
Investor

A serial investor, founder, entrepreneur and technologist. Adam specialises in early stage investment in startups with a strong intellectual capital component and is founder of www.northinvest.co.uk, providing seed funding, mentorship and investment into the northern ecosystem. His investments include artificial diamond manufacturing, medical technology, human aviation and public safety and hygiene technologies.

Prof Gary Shuckford
Investor

A digital healthcare entrepreneur with a number of Director roles, an active angel investor and visiting professor at Leeds Beckett University. He brings with him experience of scaling businesses involving technology and innovation. Previously Gary spent over 20 years at EMIS Group plc leading strategic research and operations including healthcare defence contracts.

Jez Hopkinson
Investor

Jez is the owner and lead pilot of The Yakovlevs, a UK-headquartered aerobatic formation display team – the largest of its kind in the world. A former military pilot, Jez holds multiple civilian pilot licences and ratings, including acting as one of the UK’s leading Display Pilot Evaluators, teaching the next generation of air show pilots. Outside of display flying, Jez is a PPL flight instructor and examiner, acting as Head of Training for UK flight training organisation Airborne Services Ltd.

Gilo
Cardozo, MBE
DIRECTOR

From the discovery of the first kites in China, to the earliest attempts to fly with wings made of feathers and wood; flight has been the oldest dream of mankind. For the young Gilo Cardozo, this fascination with human flight was the beginning of all his dreams. In fact, it was all he ever wanted to do. The same young boy was always pulling his toys apart to discover how and why they worked. This mechanical mind coupled with the fascination for flight formed the basis of his lifelong endeavour to advance personal aviation. Today, Gilo has joined the ranks of visionary inventors and aerospace engineers that have successfully translated their boyhood dreams into a reality.

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intellectual property

This novel hybrid autonomous drone system is protected by a UK patent published on 25 November 2020, Serial Number: 2578083B. We are now moving forward with a PCT application, and are investigating several patents in the areas of BVLOS and control.
"Hydra" is protected by a registered GB trademark.

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Partners

Hybrid Drones Ltd has a philosophy to only subcontract for essential items that would require substantial investment in time and cost to duplicate, examples are the Jet turbines, fuel cell, parachute system and cargo (hook, longline and net).

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Contact Us

For more information please send us a message below:

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