Nationwide Building Society has today announced its second investment as part of a £50 million Venturing Fund that is designed to create long-term partnerships.
Hazy, based in London and formed just 18 months ago, is an online platform that helps businesses share data responsibly. Hazy’s AI-driven solution is able to seek out and anonymise personal data, supporting businessess in ensuing customer data is as private and secure as possible.
As part of its Venturing Fund, launched last month, Nationwide is investing and partnering with early stage start-ups exploring innovative products and services that could provide real benefits for the Society’s members.
As an Artificial Intelligence company enabling safe and secure customer data sharing, Hazy has attracted investment from Nationwide in addition to a range of other investors. Despite being little more than a year old, the company is already working with customers ranging from startups to international banks and the British government.
Emma Huntington, who leads Strategic Development, Innovation and Venturing at Nationwide Building Society, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Hazy, our second investment since launching the Society’s new venturing fund. By investing in early stage start-ups, like Hazy, we can be at the forefront of helping develop innovative products and services that will benefit our members both now and in the future. We look forward to working with Hazy to help enhance the way we manage our data.”
Harry Keen, CEO of Hazy, said: “In recent months we have seen a seismic cultural shift around data. Consumers are now acutely aware of the importance of data security and, with the presence of GDPR legislation, businesses rightly now consider safe data-handling as mission-critical.
“Our technology ensures that huge unwieldy data sets are GDPR-compliant. Recognising that most companies don’t have data experts, Hazy has been built to require zero technical integration, or any technical expertise. We are proud to be working together with Nationwide especially given the parallels between our work protecting users data, and Nationwide’s consumer-centric values.”
About Nationwide
Nationwide is the world's largest building society as well as one of the largest savings providers and a top-three provider of mortgages in the UK. It is also a major provider of current accounts, credit cards, ISAs and personal loans. Nationwide has around 15 million customers.
Customers can manage their finances in a branch, via the mobile app, on the telephone, internet and post. The Society has around 18,000 employees. Nationwide's head office is in Swindon with administration centres based in Northampton, Bournemouth and Dunfermline. The Society also has a number of call centres across the UK.
