Formal · Dec 2025
Formal announced finer-grained log encryption, stripping, payload-size, and retention controls for connector logs, with the feature available to all customers.
Take control of your data in real-time.
Company research
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Updated Jul 29, 2026
Overview
Formal is a San Francisco-based, venture-backed protocol-aware data security company that secures access to databases, APIs, and infrastructure with a wire-protocol reverse proxy and policy engine.
Primary product
Formal Connector — a protocol-aware, stateless reverse proxy for data security and access control
Founded
2022
Headquarters
San Francisco, California, United States
Team size
10-20
Work style
Onsite
Industry
Data Security Software Products
Sub-industry
Protocol-aware data access security / privileged access management
Offices
374 Brannan St, San Francisco, California 94107, United States (HQ)
San Francisco, California, United States
212, Rue Saint-Maur, Paris, Île-de-France 75010, France
Business model
B2B SaaS
Enterprise software
Sales-led / demo-driven
Funding
People & investors
Leadership
Founder & CEO
CISO
Head of Sales
Founding GTM Growth
Work & culture
Engineer-first, security-heavy culture focused on least privilege, infrastructure/security-as-code, fast deployment, and customer-driven product feedback. Public hiring language emphasizes building a modern security layer with no app changes and strong technical ownership.
Work style
Onsite
Compensation
Public job postings say roles offer cash compensation plus stock options, with offer placement depending on candidate experience, skills, business needs, and location. No public salary bands were found in the sources reviewed.
Benefits
100% medical insurance coverage for U.S.-based full-time employees
100% dental insurance coverage for U.S.-based full-time employees
100% vision insurance coverage for U.S.-based full-time employees
Partially covered dependent coverage
Flexible PTO
Cash compensation
Stock options
Product & market
Pricing
Quote-based enterprise sales; request-a-demo / contact-sales motion
Differentiators
- —Protocol-aware reverse proxy that enforces policy at the wire-protocol layer
- —No app changes or SDK required for the core deployment
- —Single stateless binary deployable in VPC via Terraform, Kubernetes, or Docker
- —Native parsing for many protocols, including Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, Snowflake, SSH, Kubernetes, HTTP, MCP, S3, Redis, RDP, gRPC, BigQuery, ClickHouse, and DynamoDB
- —Real-time query/session logging and policy enforcement
- —What-if analysis against historical logs before enforcing policies
- —AI-agent-aware controls that can inspect and strip sensitive fields before upstream calls
- —In-VPC data path keeps data inside customer infrastructure
- —Sub-10ms performance positioning
- —Infrastructure/security-as-code workflow via Terraform, Pulumi, and API
Technology
Go
gRPC
Protocol Buffers
Connect RPC
Terraform
Kubernetes
Docker
Pulumi
Helm
Nix
React
TypeScript
Vercel
Datadog
Vanta
HubSpot
Snowflake
ClickHouse
Open Policy Agent
AWS
Customers
Notion
Gusto
Ramp
Modern Health
Cursor
ManoMano
Competitors
TrustLogix TrustAccess
Immuta Data Access Governance
Satori Data Access Governance
CyberArk
BeyondTrust
Delinea
Apigee
Kong
MuleSoft
IBM Guardium
Scale & contact
Estimated revenue
≈$2.3M ARR / annual revenue (2024 estimate)
Estimated monthly visits
838
Latest news
Formal · Oct 2025
Formal describes how customer demand for PHI redaction/classification led to a security-first protection system that can deploy on-premise and support healthcare workflows.
Formal · Oct 2025
Formal says the 2025 Latio Cloud Security Report recognized it as a segment leader and argues for a unified access-control layer across cloud and on-prem environments.
TechCrunch · Nov 2024
TechCrunch covered Formal’s stealth exit and its proxy-based approach to securing access to databases and APIs, along with early customers such as Gusto, Notion, and Ramp.
Formal · Nov 2024
Formal announced its seed round led by Thrive Capital and described its protocol-aware reverse proxy, customers, and policy engine.
Jobs and careers at Formal
11 jobs at Formal
Business Operations Specialist
On-site
People & Operations
San Francisco
2mo ago
On-site
Full-time
Staff Software Engineer | Backend
On-site
Engineering
San Francisco
3mo ago
On-site
Full-time
Product Marketing Manager
On-site
Marketing & Design
San Francisco
1y ago
On-site
Full-time
Account Executive
On-site
Sales
San Francisco
1y ago
On-site
Full-time
Software Engineer | Backend
On-site
Engineering
San Francisco
1y ago
On-site
Full-time
Channel Account Specialist
On-site
Sales
San Francisco
1y ago
On-site
Full-time
Field Marketing Specialist
On-site
Marketing & Design
San Francisco
1y ago
On-site
Full-time
Software Engineer | Fullstack
On-site
Engineering
San Francisco
1y ago
On-site
Full-time
Founding Designer
On-site
1y ago
On-site
Full-time
Solutions Engineer
On-site
1y ago
On-site
Full-time
Senior Software Engineer | Backend
On-site
1y ago
On-site
Full-time