Bastazo, a Bentonville-based cybersecurity startup, has closed a $5.3 million seed round led by Cortado Ventures. The funding marks a major milestone in the company’s mission to safeguard the operational technology (OT) environments that power national infrastructure - from power grids to water systems to manufacturing plants.

Meeting the Urgent Need for OT Cybersecurity

In an increasingly digital and connected landscape, OT networks remain dangerously vulnerable. Unlike traditional IT systems, operational networks control physical processes and infrastructure, and a breach can have catastrophic, real-world consequences.

Bastazo is solving this by combining artificial intelligence with deep domain knowledge to deliver real-time vulnerability detection, contextual threat prioritization, and step-by-step remediation - directly mapped to critical compliance frameworks like NERC CIP.

Built From the Front Lines of Energy Infrastructure

The startup’s roots trace back to a cybersecurity research initiative under the U.S. Department of Energy’s SEEDS program. That research, conducted at the University of Arkansas, focused on protecting distributed energy resources, a notoriously complex and underserved segment in cybersecurity.

Founded by Mauricio Iglesias (CEO), the team brings a rare blend of academic depth, regulatory experience, and practical industry insight. Since its commercial launch in 2023, Bastazo has already begun deployments across utilities and manufacturing companies.

Rather than overwhelming teams with alerts, Bastazo intelligently surfaces only the most critical vulnerabilities - often the top 5% - and links them with custom remediation playbooks. These playbooks are engineered to integrate directly into existing OT workflows and provide automatic audit trails for compliance teams.

Here’s where Bastazo’s story offers a razor-sharp insight for founders building in regulated industries: compliance and security aren’t obstacles - they can be strategic product features. Many startups treat regulations like annoying guardrails. Bastazo took the opposite approach. They didn’t just work around compliance - they embedded it into their core product logic. That decision didn’t slow them down - it gave them leverage. If your end users are navigating regulation every day, then baking that burden into the platform itself makes you indispensable. For founders, that’s a strategic moat - your product doesn’t just work better; it reduces real risk for users and helps them pass audits. That’s a win that scales with every regulation update, not against it.

Why Bastazo Is Poised to Lead OT Cybersecurity

Cyberattacks targeting OT environments are increasing year over year. What makes Bastazo unique is that its platform is both proactive and reactive - it not only flags problems but walks teams through solving them. Its AI layer doesn’t just guess; it interprets context, prioritizes what truly matters, and logs every action for review.

This approach positions Bastazo as far more than another cybersecurity tool. It’s a real-time defense orchestrator tailored for systems that can't afford guesswork.

Backed by a Mission-Driven Team and Strategic Investors

The seed round, led by Cortado Ventures with participation from other early-stage partners, will fuel product development, go-to-market expansion, and hiring across engineering and customer success. Bastazo’s leadership team is aligned around a clear mission: to reduce the cyber risk of America’s most essential systems without adding noise or overhead.

Their strategic advantage lies in their deep understanding of both the technology stack and the regulatory landscape. That rare dual fluency allows Bastazo to build with both velocity and trust.

What’s Next for Bastazo

With new funding secured, Bastazo is rapidly expanding its footprint across the U.S. energy and manufacturing sectors. Their product roadmap includes deeper integrations with industrial control systems, expanded AI explainability features, and advanced compliance automation - aimed at helping OT operators sleep better at night knowing their systems are both secure and auditable.

As infrastructure continues to digitize, the demand for intelligent, operationally-aligned cybersecurity will only grow. Bastazo’s blend of contextual AI, embedded compliance, and OT-native workflows may very well define the next generation of critical infrastructure defense.