Formal Raises $5.8M to Give Security Teams Control Without Slowing Down Innovation

At just 24, Mokhtar Bacha’s story is already one of ambition, pivots, and execution in the world of data security. From his early days as a software engineer at Consensys, working on some of the earliest Ethereum projects, to founding Formal—a security startup aimed at tackling the growing complexity of data access in the cloud—Bacha has proven that sometimes, the best solutions come from the most unexpected of journeys.

Formal wasn’t always the company it is today. It began as Maytana, a cash management platform designed for multinational startups. But as Bacha immersed himself deeper into the world of security and data, he realized the problem he truly wanted to solve: how to manage and secure access to sensitive data in a rapidly evolving tech landscape. The problem wasn’t just technical—it was structural. The explosion of modern data stacks, AI, and cloud tools had left security teams scrambling, often relying on outdated systems that failed to keep pace with the growing complexity of the infrastructure they were meant to protect.

So, at just 19, Bacha took a bold step. He applied to Y Combinator as a solo founder and pivoted Maytana into what would become Formal. His vision: a security product that would be both scalable and adaptable, giving security teams the control they needed without slowing down the pace of innovation.

A Reverse Proxy for Modern Data Security

At its core, Formal is a reverse-proxy for data stores and APIs that allows security teams to enforce access policies without disrupting workflows. But what sets it apart is its ability to operate as an abstraction layer, integrating seamlessly with the underlying data infrastructure.