Hazy, a UK-based data anonymisation technology spinout from University College London (UCL), has extended its seed round to $2.8m with a $1.8m second tranche led by the UCL Technology Fund.
The round featured financial services provider Nationwide Building Society and Pentland Ventures, part of brand management company Pentland Group. Amadeus Capital Partners, AI Seed and unspecified additional investors also took part.
Hazy’s second tranche adds to an initial $1m sum supplied in May 2018 by software and technology firm Microsoft’s corporate venturing arm, M12, and venture capital firm Notion.
Founded as Anon AI in 2017, Hazy is developing software that automatically anonymises personal data held by businesses across an array of ever-changing datasets.
The tool is designed to stop clients falling foul of data privacy laws such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which launched in May this year and carries hefty fines for companies found to be in violation.
Hazy has already launched its first product, which tracks data sharing complete with embedded GDPR forms that are required for legal compliance. The seed capital will be put towards further development of Hazy’s data anonymisation facility.
Hazy was co-founded by Fintan Nagle, a machine learning scientist in UCL’s Department of Cognitive, Perceptual and Brain Sciences, with James Arthur, who previously helped launch furniture marketplace Opendesk, and Harry Keen, who led Opendesk’s engineering design.
The spinout previously raised $463,000 in pre-seed funding in January 2017 from UCL Technology Fund, publicly-owned London Co-Investment Fund, AI Seed and Ascension Ventures.
David Grimm, investment director of Albion Capital, said: “Big data analytics offers unparalleled opportunities for startups and corporate giants alike, but also puts data security at the top of the agenda for the world’s regulators.
“Hazy’s solution is a game changer, enabling businesses to automatically anonymise complex datasets without the need for a lengthy technical integration with internal systems.”
