In October we published a brief investigation into goings on at the Mota Group, the company that purchased the marketing and branding rights to the original (and doomed) Lily Drone project.

As part of the Mota Group’s marketing efforts, the company used its newly acquired list of let down Lily backers to help fund and sell a new but limited version of the drone the original project had intended to take to market. The Mota Group was able to directly target the very people who had received refunds from the original Lily project and offer them discounts on the new drone.

It came to our attention that there were plenty of unhappy customers who felt mistreated by the Mota Group for a variety of reasons. The company website itself was also riddled with fake reviews and fishy marketing practices, while several buyers had problems with their shipments and felt let down once again.

As well as a discount, many backers of the original Lily project were offered share options ahead of the company’s purported IPO if they made a purchase.

The new drone did hit the market and get out to customers. But the San Jose company was later found to have overstated revenue for 2016, before agreeing to a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and withdrawing its IPO registration statement.

To this day, DroneLife is still getting messages from disgruntled Mota Group customers.

So what’s the latest? Well, it looks like big (and bad) news.

Has the Mota Group Shut Down?

A quick browse of the Mota Group’s social media channels and the official Lily Camera’s social media pages show that all have been untouched since before the turn of the year.

The Mota Group website is also blocked or disabled. As well as that, the official Lily Drone website (http://www.lily.camera), part of the branding package bought and run by the Mota Group, is also unavailable to access.

This would chime with reports we’ve been getting of annoyed Lily customers who are having their support tickets ignored completely, as well as stories that the customer phone number is no longer operational.

It would also suggest that the Lily Drone has struck again, once again leaving unlucky customers out of pocket and in search of answers.

We’ve attempted to contact members of staff at the Mota Group and are yet to receive any replies. It’s not looking good.