Interview with Harry Keen, Founder of anon.ai

I caught up with Harry Keen, founder of anon.ai – a new data platform that leverages AI to automatically anonymise data making it GDPR friendly.

What does Anon.ai  do?

We help businesses share data securely. Our platform enables users to upload and link data sources, manage users and generate GDPR friendly sharing agreements. We also incorporate automated data anonymisation and masking to add additional privacy protection.

What made you start your company – was it a personal passion, or a problem you identified, or a market opportunity?

We had a version of the problem at our last startup and thought it would be fun to try and solve. As we looked in to it we found many other people and businesses experienced the same issue but on a much deeper level and a bigger market opportunity presented itself.

What funding have you received so far?

We raised £440k from VCs including AI Seed and an Innovate UK grant.

Do you think your investors invested in the idea, the product, the founders, or the team?

All of the above! Our product involves a lot of up front R&D, and we were at the prototype stage for this investment round. So I think our investors put a lot of faith in us as a team and our experience. I would add timing as well. With the GDPR around the corner, it makes it easier for investors to see the potential for the solution.

Any advice for the perfect pitch deck?

Keep it simple. I like using 2/3 bold words in each key point, it makes it very easy to scan read.

What was the hardest thing about doing your funding round?

Consolidating terms from different investors.

If there were three things you could tell a founder looking to do their round, what would they be?

1. Prepare a detailed “data room” you can immediately link to potential investors before you even start looking for investment.

2. Always get feedback on your business after meetings, the people you meet are experts at assessing businesses and are more than happy to share positive / negative feedback.

3. Incorporate that feedback immediately.

What’s next on the horizon for Anon AI?

First release coming in Q1 and we have two spots left for beta testers. Contact me on [email protected] if you need secure data sharing and anonymisation solutions that work with the GDPR and would like to take part in a beta trial!