Protent, a San Francisco-based AI startup building real-time intelligence systems for mission-critical environments, has raised early-stage funding as it develops a platform designed to help security operators and public safety teams detect and respond to high-risk incidents in real time.

According to publicly available startup data, Protent has raised funding through its participation in the Y Combinator Winter 2026 batch, which includes an initial seed investment of approximately $125,000. This backing provides early capital and accelerator support as the company builds and pilots its real-time video intelligence platform.

The company is led by co-founders Srihan Balaji and Abhisheik Sharma, who are developing what they describe as an AI-driven intelligence layer for live operational environments. Protent’s platform processes real-time video feeds from sources such as CCTV systems, body-worn cameras, and other surveillance infrastructure, using machine learning models to detect escalation patterns, identify anomalies, and surface critical incidents as they occur.

The system is designed to convert passive surveillance infrastructure into active decision-support tools. Instead of relying solely on human operators to monitor multiple live video streams, Protent’s software automatically prioritizes and flags high-risk events, helping reduce response times and improve situational awareness in fast-moving environments.

The company’s funding structure remains early-stage, with Y Combinator as its primary disclosed institutional backer. No additional venture capital firms or angel investors have been publicly confirmed in relation to its seed financing. As with other YC-backed startups, the investment provides not only capital but also access to mentorship, technical support, and enterprise/government networks.

Protent operates within the rapidly growing AI public safety and security intelligence sector, where demand for automated monitoring and real-time analytics tools is increasing. Its platform is designed for use cases such as urban policing, infrastructure monitoring, and emergency response coordination—environments where delayed detection of incidents can have significant consequences.

Beyond funding, Protent is working on early pilot deployments with security-focused organizations, focusing on improving real-time inference speed and scaling its video analysis capabilities. The system is designed to support natural language queries across live or recorded footage, enabling operators to search for events, objects, or behavioral patterns across multiple camera feeds simultaneously.

The startup’s approach reflects a broader industry shift toward AI-assisted situational awareness systems, where machine learning models help filter large volumes of video data and highlight relevant activity for human operators. This reduces cognitive load in security operations centers and improves the speed and consistency of incident detection.

As part of the Y Combinator ecosystem, Protent also benefits from exposure to enterprise and government buyers, which are critical in the public safety technology market. The company is currently focused on refining its product, scaling its infrastructure for real-time video processing, and expanding pilot programs with law enforcement and security agencies.

While its disclosed funding remains limited to the Y Combinator investment, Protent is positioned within a growing category of AI infrastructure startups focused on real-time security intelligence. As demand for automated monitoring systems continues to rise, the company is aiming to establish itself as an early provider of AI-powered operational awareness tools for public safety and security environments.

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