Former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka has launched a new startup targeting the IT services world. His company, Hang Ten Systems, bets that AI can do much of that work. The venture raised a $32 million seed round led by Mayfield.
The funding drew strong strategic backing too. Aramco Ventures made a strategic investment, alongside several angel investors. The startup’s board includes Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. Hang Ten says it helps enterprises build, modify, and operate software using AI.
For decades, IT services firms earned billions from outsourced tech work. They customized, integrated, and maintained enterprise software for clients. Sikka now wagers that AI-driven development can handle much of that. Infosys, the firm he once led, ranks among India’s largest such players.
The startup is already working with major enterprise customers. These include Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Fresenius. Mayfield partner Navin Chaddha said the firm started just a month back. He noted it already has paying customers.
“At Mayfield, we invest in people first, and Vishal is one of the rare leaders who can make enterprise AI actually work,” said Navin Chaddha, Managing Partner at Mayfield. “We backed Vishal from inception because he has done this before running products and technology at SAP and leading Infosys as CEO. Within a few years, the gap between enterprises that use AI to real advantage and those that don’t will define entire industries. Hang Ten is focused on enterprise transformations to put companies on the right side of that line.”
Sikka brings deep enterprise software experience to the venture. He spent 12 years building software at SAP before Infosys. He later served as a board member at Oracle. After leaving Infosys in 2017, he founded the AI startup VianAI.
Hang Ten differs from that earlier venture, however. VianAI focused on enterprise AI applications and analytics tools. Hang Ten centers on AI services built around agentic code generation. It also uses reusable AI skills and deep domain expertise.
The launch lands amid fierce debate over AI’s impact on IT services. Analysts at Jefferies argue the sector faces early AI disruption. Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani counters that AI could expand the market. Infosys frames AI-first services as a $300 to $400 billion opportunity by 2030. Yet Infosys shares have fallen over 35% this year amid the uncertainty.
