Nationwide Building Society has announced its second investment as part of a £50 million Venturing Fund designed to create long-term FinTech partnerships.

Hazy, based in London and formed just 18 months ago, is an online platform that helps businesses share data responsibly. Its artificial intelligence-driven solution is able to seek out and anonymise personal data, supporting businesses in ensuing customer data is as private and secure as possible.

Despite being little more than a year old, the company is already working with customers ranging from start-ups to international banks and the British government.

As part of its Venturing Fund, launched last month, Nationwide is investing £50 million in, and partnering with, early stage start-ups exploring innovative products and services that could provide real benefits for the society’s members.

The society made its first investment into startup Acasa, which is focused on supporting both landlords and tenants living in shared accommodation with their everyday finances.

Emma Huntington, who leads strategic development, innovation and venturing at Nationwide, said: “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.”

Hazy chief executive Harry Keen said that in recent months he’s 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,” he continued. “Recognising that most companies don’t have data experts, Hazy has been built to require zero technical integration, or any technical expertise.”

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