Nationwide invests in AI start-up Hazy’s bid to simplify GDPR
A LONDON start-up has cashed in on strict new European Union data rules with funding from Nationwide and tech giant Microsoft to help companies protect data privacy.
Hazy has raised more than £2.5m this year in total from backers including Nationwide and University College London’s technology fund.
Founded in mid-2017, the start-up is one of a handful trying to turn new EU data laws to their advantage.
The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has forced companies to be more diligent over how the personal data they collect is used.
The rules also require companies to appoint a representative to make sure data is safely used. Hazy says its artificial intelligence software does much of the legwork for companies, organising large data sets and making them anonymous. The one-year-old start-up has secured a deal with Nationwide and UCL for an extra £1.4m in funding. The backers join Microsoft’s venture capital fund M12, which invested in the firm earlier this year. “Fundamentally, we are helping companies treat data responsibly,” Harry Keen, the Hazy chief executive, told The Daily Telegraph.
“If you want to instill trust in clients rather than being reactive to GDPR, you can use it as a positive thing. You’re not like Cambridge Analytica. It is fantastic Nationwide is joining Microsoft. In Nationwide we have a very collaborative customer who can find new use cases.”
The investment is only the second for Nationwide’s newly launched £50m venture capital fund. Emma Huntington, Nationwide’s investment lead, said the backing would help the building society develop new products and services for its 15m members.
Hazy is not the only start-up that has seen its work elevated by the new EU data rules, which can land companies with up to £17m in fines for data breaches and require them to gain additional consent when collecting data.
Last month, start-up Tessian raised £9m from investors to help stop customers sending out emails to the wrong person, detecting them even before they hit send.
Hazy will use the new funding to keep adding to its team, having doubled in size to 12 people. The start-up was picked as one of the winners of Microsoft’s global Innovate.ai competition, earning funding from one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
Mr Keen said: “After hearing we had won the Microsoft funding opportunity, that triggered our next raise and we started looking for investors. There is a good funding base here in London.”