Protecto Joins Cadre of Startups in AI Data Protection Space

Protecto, a Silicon Valley startup working on technology to secure corporate AI deployments, is joining a fast-growing list of early stage companies in the artificial intelligence security category.

The San Jose company has attracted $4 million seed-stage capital to drive its ambitions to enable the future of data privacy and security.

Protecto said the financing was led by the Together Fund. Investors from Better Capital, FortyTwo VC, Arali Ventures and Speciale Invest also took equity stakes.

The startup is pitching the idea of easy-to-use APIs to help organizations protect data and ensure compliance throughout the AI lifecycle across training, RAG/tuning, and prompts.

Protecto said its technology will be able to mask sensitive personal data while preserving the original data format and meaning, allowing AI models to understand the context and generate accurate results.

The company plans to use the new capital to hire engineering talent and expand its go-to-market strategic initiatives.

Protecto is the latest in a growing list of new AI security companies attracting venture capital bets. This year alone, investors have poured cash into companies like Hidden Layer, CalypsoAI, Harmonic and KPMG-spinout Cranium.

The increased investments in AI security follows the heady launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT app and a race among software providers big and small to embrace the powerful capabilities of LLM (language learning models) and generative AI.

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Software giant Microsoft has debuted an AI-powered security analysis tool to automate incident response and threat hunting tasks, showcasing a security use-case generative AI chatbots.

OpenAI has also released a business edition of ChatGPT, promising enterprise-grade security and a commitment not to use client-specific prompts and data in the training of its models.

https://www.securityweek.com/protecto-joins-cadre-of-startups-in-ai-data-protection-space/