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For decades, IT services firms made billions of dollars by allowing companies to outsource tech tasks like customizing, integrating, and maintaining enterprise software. Vishal Sikka, former CEO of Infosys, one of the largest such firms in India, is now betting that AI can do much of that work instead. His new startup, Hang Ten Systems, has raised a $32 million seed round led by Mayfield, it said Wednesday, with a strategic investment from Aramco Ventures and participation from angel investors. The startup, whose board includes Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, said it helps enterprises continuously build, modify, and operate software using AI-driven development and automation. Hang Ten enters a market where IT services firms, including Infosys, are racing to adapt to AI through partnerships with companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. The startup’s launch comes amid a growing debate over whether AI will expand the industry’s addressable market or fundamentally alter how enterprise software is built, maintained, and delivered. Clearly, some enterprises are eager to try the AI-services idea, especially from someone as experienced as Sikka, who spent 12 years building enterprise software at SAP, and later as a board member for Oracle. Mayfield Managing Partner Navin Chaddha told TechCrunch that the company “just got started a month back” and already has customers. The startup said it is working with customers including Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Fresenius on AI-native project delivery. In a separate blog post announcing the venture, Sikka, 59, said Hang Ten was already helping large enterprises “hang ten on the biggest wave of our lifetimes.” Headquartered in the Bay Area, Hang Ten told TechCrunch that it is hiring across delivery, engineering, sales, and leadership and plans to expand across multiple locations globally to meet enterprise demand. The early crew at the startup includes executives who have worked with Sikka for years across SAP, Infosys and his previous enterprise AI startup, VianAI, according to their LinkedIn profiles. Among them are co-founders Navin Budhiraja, the startup’s CTO, Sanjay Rajagopalan, its chief design officer, and Tao Liu, its senior vice president of forward deployed engineering. After stepping down as Infosys’ chief executive in 2017, Sikka founded VianAI, which emerged from stealth in 2019 with $50 million in seed funding and later raised $140 million in a 2021 round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Chaddha told TechCrunch Hang Ten is distinct from VianAI, describing Sikka’s earlier venture as focused on a different market. VianAI focused on enterprise AI applications and analytics tools designed to help businesses use artificial intelligence in decision-making. Hang Ten, by contrast, describes itself as an enterprise AI services company built around agentic code generation, reusable AI skills, and domain expertise. Mayfield backed Hang Ten because of Sikka’s career experience, as well as its belief that the startup’s AI-native model can scale differently from traditional services firms. “Traditional services scale linearly with headcount,” Mayfield said. “Hang Ten is built so its leverage grows with every project.” Hang Ten emerges as investors debate how AI will affect the economics of the IT services industry. Analysts at Jefferies argued earlier this year that IT services may be among the first sectors to face meaningful AI disruption. Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani, however, this week said AI could expand the industry’s addressable market. Infosys itself has sought to position AI as an opportunity rather than a threat, telling investors this month that “AI-first services” could represent a $300 billion-$400 billion market by 2030. The debate comes as investors reassess the outlook for traditional IT services firms, with Infosys shares down over 35% this year.
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