London-based social shopping app Haz has secured a pre-seed funding round of $1.4 million. The investors include Speedinvest, scouts programs of a16z, Atomico, Concept Ventures, and various business angels.
- Co-founded in 2024 by Ronan Harvey-Kelly and Glenn Keller, Haz develops an AI-powered social commerce app that tracks ownership, resale value, and simplifies the second-hand consumer experience. The app is already available on iOS for free and is used by thousands.
- The funding round was led by Speedinvest, an Austrian venture capital firm managing over €1 billion in assets. Speedinvest operates in several European countries, including Germany, the UK, France, and Austria.
“It is clear that the future of commerce is resale. While we have seen huge advancements in how people shop, the second-hand industry has lacked any real AI innovation over the last five years. Your friends follow your location, like your photos, and see what you're listening to in real time. Now Haz lets them track and engage with what you own, and this new type of connection is what excites us most,” Katharine Spooner from the Marketplaces & Consumer team, commented.
- The round saw participation from several angel programs partners, including Dima Shvets, co-founers of Ukrainian AI startup Reface, (a16z program), Sameer Singh, partner at Speedinvest, (Atomico), and Oliver Kicks, partner at Concept Ventures, and business angels.
- With its recent capital injection, Haz aims to grow its team of engineers and creators, expand its operations in the UK before expanding across Europe, and improve its AI models, including its remote authentication technology.
