Protecto

Protecto is a data security and privacy platform built for organizations developing and deploying AI systems. The company focuses on protecting sensitive data within AI workflows, addressing risks such as privacy breaches, data leaks, and compliance violations that arise as AI moves into production environments. The platform targets engineering teams building AI at scale, providing deterministic, precision-based controls rather than heuristic approaches. Protecto's tooling is designed to preserve model accuracy while enforcing data privacy policies, making it suitable for enterprise environments where auditability and policy-driven controls are required. Protecto's core offerings include AI guardrails and data masking or anonymization capabilities for generative AI pipelines and AI agents. The platform supports compliance with regulatory frameworks including HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, DPDP, and PDPL. It is SOC 2 certified and ISO 27001 aligned. The company is co-founded by Amar Kanagaraj (CEO), formerly of Microsoft Search & AI, and Baskaran Alagarsamy (CTO), who spent over 18 years at Apple leading privacy engineering efforts. Protecto has been selected for Google's AI First Accelerator (2025) and is backed by investors including Together Fund, Arali Ventures, Better Capital, and 42VC. Protecto is available as a SaaS offering and is designed to integrate into existing AI development workflows. Customers include organizations such as Inovalon, Automation Anywhere, Ivanti, and Nokia.