London and Amsterdam-based Naq, a cybersecurity and compliance company, has raised €6M in a Series A funding round from Automate Health.

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In addition to funding, Automate Health will assist the UK-Dutch company by providing access to the group’s best practices in health tech SaaS operations, a long-term capital base, and a network of advisors that includes industry veterans Dan Taylor and Pam Garside.

Based in London, Automate Health is a private company backed by the Steyn Group, a leading global family office, with a management team that has a strong track record in scaling SaaS companies.

Matt Taylor, CEO of Automate Health, says, “Automate Health backs standout companies solving systemic inefficiencies and compliance challenges in healthcare. Naq is exactly that: an industry-leading platform with a loyal customer base, sticky revenue and growing demand as cybersecurity becomes mission-critical across health systems.” 

Fund utilisation

Naq plans to use the funding to expand its software-led compliance solutions to a broader range of organisations that need rapid and efficient compliance with Cyber Essentials, the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT), and the NHS Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC).

This approach offers a cost-effective and efficient alternative to traditional consulting services.

The investment will help the organisation accelerate product development, expanding its AI capabilities and adding additional standards to its compliance platform, including the Medical Device Regulation, ISO 42001, SOC 2, and HIPAA.

Naq will use the capital to increase the headcount of its clinical and cybersecurity teams.

Naq: Demystifying compliance, security and assurance

At present, navigating regulatory compliance is a big challenge for new health innovators.

In most cases, they often have to choose between hiring costly consultants or handling everything themselves, which takes time away from developing their products.

Co-founded in 2020 by GDPR lawyer Nadia Kadhim and former NATO cybersecurity expert Chris Clinton, Naq is an automated healthcare compliance platform that automates over 80 per cent of compliance tasks.

This simplifies the process of achieving, monitoring, and managing digital health compliance, allowing innovators to bring their solutions to market more quickly.

300% YoY growth since launch

Since its launch, the company has grown by 300 per cent year-over-year and has over 150 customers, including several that serve the NHS, such as RareCan, Incision, Visiopath, Oxford Dynamics, OTESA, and Care for Me.

Naq is designed specifically for digital healthcare, providing a single platform to ensure that digital health technologies meet regulatory requirements in cybersecurity, privacy, and clinical safety.

The company emerged from the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) flagship cyber innovation Accelerator programme. 

Nadia Kadhim, Co-founder and CEO, Naq, adds, “As the NHS shifts from analogue to digital, protecting patient data and systems is vital. With this funding, our technology will help even more NHS suppliers to meet security standards without complexity or the excessive cost of consultancy offerings, saving innovators more than 180,000 hours or £20,000 per compliance standard.”