Humayun Sheikh (founding investor, DeepMind) and Amadeus Capital Partners commit capital and expertise to the company targeting the personal data economy
26 June 2017 – HAT Data Exchange, the technology company behind the Hub of All Things personal data exchange ecosystem, has secured funding and expertise from Amadeus Capital Partners and Humayun Sheikh, exiting seed stage to promote the development of its privacy-preserving online infrastructure.
The value of personal data is growing rapidly, exceeding €272 billion in the EU alone. The wealth of every business offering consumer-facing products and services depends on it. But the core of this data economy is rotten: the competitive value of this information exceeds the understanding and consent that its owners, the customers, are able and willing to give.
The Hub of All Things builds own-able digital accounts for individuals, called “HATs,” that are designed specifically for personal information, whether it be social data created on Facebook, image data created on smartphones, or healthcare data from medical practices. Using a HAT, people can capture this data and choose to securely transact it with any business whenever they wish. In this way, the HAT is transitioning the Internet from a “companies pull” to an “individuals push” data economy.
An ecosystem of HATs gathered together could give businesses access to rich information about their customers, while at the same time giving individuals control over how that information is used. HATs, as private data accounts, can be provisioned by corporations for their own customers, with their own brand, much like provisioning bank accounts, but with individuals retaining ownership and privacy over their HATs, made possible through a unique containerised technology built by the Hub of All Things.
HAT private data accounts are built on the HAT open sourced technology platform created by six universities from 2013-2016.
The company’s latest investment is accompanied by unrivalled experience and expertise from Humayun Sheikh, the founding investor in DeepMind, Alex van Someren, Managing Partner at Amadeus Capital Partners and co-founder of cyber security accelerator, Cyber London, Oscar Vickerman, Founder of B.Heard, KS Chak from Stream Global Venture Capital, Lai Chwang, founder of Noggin Asia, the Singapore consumer marketing platform, and Gabriel Ng, from SA Travel in Malaysia, all of whom have been invited to join the company’s advisory board.
Paul Tasker, CEO, HAT Data Exchange, said: “Our new advisory board and funding will be used to encourage technology-forward companies around the world to move their customer relationships and technology to the progressive safety of a privacy-preserving infrastructure of private data accounts capable of exchanging and transacting on a real time, on demand basis. A new investment fund and technology accelerator will follow to start building apps from messaging to social media on the HAT open innovation platform, engaging with public and private-sector champions to encourage the spread of this data sharing economy.”
Alex van Someren, Managing Partner, Early Stage Funds, Amadeus Capital Partners, commented:, “In addition to giving individuals the opportunity to control and benefit from access to their personal data – a key issue for today’s consumer – HAT private data accounts can be integrated in any app, potentially reducing cybersecurity and personal data containment risks for developers. We look forward to supporting the Hub of All Things in its next phase of growth.”
About the Hub of All Things
HAT technology helps the Internet exchange and trade personal data. They are ‘private data accounts’ that let you store your personal data for yourself within a database that is ‘wrapped’ with its own containerised microservices, so that you have full control, access and ownership of it. They give you the freedom and the power to own and exchange as much (or as little) of your own information as you want with the companies and the websites that you love. HATs are private and secure, and the personal property of their owner – and so is the data inside.
About Amadeus Capital Partners
Amadeus Capital Partners is a global technology investor. Since 1997, the firm has backed more than 120 companies and raised over $1bn for investment.
With vast experience and a great network, Amadeus Capital’s team of investors and entrepreneurs share a passion for the transformative power of technology. We invest in consumer services, financial technology, artificial intelligence, cyber security, medical technology, digital health and digital media.
Early stage investments we’ve made include genomic research data collaboration platform Repositive, massively parallel simulation platform Improbable.io, Graphcore, innovators in intelligent microprocessors, and speech recognition company VocalIQ.
To learn more visit https://amadeuscapital.com or follow us at @AmadeusCapital.