Seed Funds for Privacy Specialist Protecto

In the US, privacy solution Protecto has raised $4m in a seed funding round, which it will use to hire engineering talent and expand its go-to-market initiatives.

Protecto safeguards enterprise data across the GenAI project lifecycle - from synthetic data generation for model development, to sensitive data exchanged while users interact with large language models (LLMs). The firm filters sensitive data from clients' prompts, preventing privacy violations, and can retrofit enterprise models to prevent privacy and security leaks in the responses. The firm's APIs mask sensitive personal data while preserving the original data format and meaning, allowing AI models to understand the context.

New funding was led by Together Fund, with participation from Better Capital, FortyTwo VC, Arali Ventures and Speciale Invest. This brings the total raised to date to $5m, after Protecto raised initial angel investment from Google and Microsoft execs in 2021. Protecto founder and CEO Amar Kanagaraj (pictured) comments: 'Privacy and security concerns have long been stumbling blocks for businesses wanting to harness AI fully. 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'.

Web site: www.protecto.ai .