Nearhuman, a physical AI start-up based at Bristol Robotics Laboratory, has raised £350,000 in pre-seed funding led by SFC Capital. The funding will bring on-device safety technology to the shared e-scooter and e-bike fleets now common in cities in the United Kingdom.
Shared micromobility has expanded faster than the tools to manage it. In 2025, 235 pedestrians were injured in reported collisions involving e-scooters in Great Britain, according to Department for Transport figures. Operators and councils have little direct evidence of how and where vehicles are actually ridden, despite growing concern about pavement riding and other unsafe behaviour.
Nearhuman's product is a camera module that fits onto vehicles already on the street. AI running on the vehicle detects pavement riding, close calls with pedestrians and road hazards as they happen. Footage is processed and redacted on board, so sensitive video never needs to leave the vehicle. Operators receive safety analytics without replacing their fleets, while councils gain street-level data on the condition of roads, cycle lanes and pavements, gathered by vehicles that cover the city every day.
Founder Faizan Mir grew up in Kashmir and was building things from an early age. At 14, he built a drone and a working flamethrower, earning national recognition, and his father's challenge to build something that makes the world a better place has shaped his work since. At 16, Mir represented North India in Mobile Robotics at IndiaSkills, the national skills competition, and won a Medallion for Excellence. He went on to study robotics at UWE Bristol and founded Nearhuman at Bristol Robotics Laboratory.
Nearhuman has launched a live pilot in Bristol and plans to release further AI products in the coming months. The new capital will support product development, on-street testing and commercial deployment as Nearhuman works with operators and councils on safety use cases for shared e-scooter and e-bike fleets.
My father's question has shaped everything I've built since. Shared scooters and bikes are one of the best things to happen to cities, but operators and councils are working blind. We're giving them eyes on the ground, with privacy built into the hardware. I think he would finally approve of this one.
AI has changed how we work on screens. The next shift is AI that runs inside physical machines, and Nearhuman is building for exactly that. E-scooters are a smart place to start, a real safety problem in UK cities today. But what Nearhuman is really building is the intelligence layer for the physical world.
