Protecto Secures $4M Seed Funding to Empower Enterprises with Trusted AI Solutions

• Protecto aims to tackle foundational data protection barriers to enable safer AI and accelerate AI adoption

• 50% of software engineering leader roles will explicitly require oversight of generative AI by 2025

• Initial customers include Brookfield Renewables and a wide range of enterprise organizations across industries, including financial services, healthcare and technology

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SAN JOSE, Calif.—Nov. 8, 2023—Protecto, a leading data privacy solution enabling safer AI, today announced the close of a $4 million seed funding round. Together Fund led the round with participation from Better Capital, FortyTwo VC, Arali Ventures and Speciale Invest.

The latest round brings the total raised to $5 million after Protecto raised initial angel investment capital from Google and Microsoft executives in 2021. The company will use the latest infusion of venture capital funds to strengthen its technical edge by hiring top engineering talent and expanding its go-to-market strategic initiatives.

The amount of data being analyzed is multiplying by the day with no barriers, enabling anyone — even those without technical backgrounds — to use AI for data analysis. Organizational volume and complexity of data, including previously unexplored sources like chat history, sales call transcripts, and community discussions will go through AI to expedite screening. However, this vast and unstructured data inherently carries high risks, containing personal and sensitive information that increases unauthorized data access, leaks, and privacy violations.

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Eliminating the Fear of Enterprise AI Adoption by Ensuring Data Privacy

Ultimately, the fear of security and privacy incidents may slow the AI adoption that engineers and architects rely on to help increase productivity and streamline workflows, highlighting the urgent need for innovative approaches to address these challenges.

“Privacy and security concerns have long been stumbling blocks for businesses wanting to harness AI fully,” said Amar Kanagaraj, Protecto’s founder and CEO. “At Protecto, our mission is to eliminate these barriers. With our innovative approach, companies no longer have to choose between harnessing the power of AI and ensuring data privacy.”

Organizations’ increased adoption of generative AI tools like ChatGPT is the driving factor for data privacy and security solutions. According to Gartner, more than 50% of software engineering roles will require oversight of generative AI by 2025, with Big Tech putting significant restrictions on employee use of the technology. Current compliance and security tools won't work effectively anymore due to loss of data utility, inconsistency and structure amnesia, depriving AI models of valuable context. This created an opportunity for Protecto to innovate in addressing AI security and trust issues.

Protecto's easy-to-use APIs help organizations protect data and ensure compliance throughout the AI lifecycle across training, RAG/tuning, and prompts. They mask sensitive personal data while preserving the original data format and meaning, allowing AI models to understand the context and generate accurate results.

“Protecto is enabling the future of data privacy and security,” said Manav Garg, a co-founder of Together Fund. “We have a strong thesis on AI and the role of privacy in the complex AI space. We share a similar vision with Protecto to safeguard data while unleashing the power of data to drive global progress.”

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About Protecto

Based in Silicon Valley, Protecto protects enterprise data across the GenAI project lifecycle, from synthetic data generation for model development to protecting sensitive data while users interact with large language models (LLMs). With a core belief in privacy as a fundamental human right, Protecto is committed to driving technological innovation by enhancing the safety of AI systems. Protecto operates from its headquarters in San Jose, CA, and an advanced development center in the tech hub of Bengaluru, India. Founded in 2021, Protecto is backed by Together Fund, Better Capital, 42 VC, Arali Ventures and Speciale Invest. For more information, visit www.protecto.ai.

Protecto is an inductee of the National Centre of Excellence for Cybersecurity Technology, a joint initiative by India's Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) and the Data Security Council of India (DSCI).

About Together Fund

Together Fund is India's first operator-led early stage venture fund typically investing up to $5M in SaaS and AI startups.