Former Infosys chief has a new startup that wants to challenge the IT services world

For decades, IT service providers made billions of dollars by allowing companies to outsource technical tasks such as customizing, integrating and maintaining enterprise software. Vishal Sikka, former CEO of Infosys, one of India’s largest companies, is now betting that AI can do much of that work.

His new start-up, Hang ten systemsraised a $32 million seed round led by Mayfield, it said on Wednesdaywith a strategic investment from Aramco Ventures and participation from angel investors. The startup, which includes Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, said it helps companies continuously build, customize and operate software using AI-driven development and automation.

Hang Ten is entering a market where IT services providers, including Infosys, are rushing 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 change the way enterprise software is built, maintained and delivered.

Clearly, some enterprises are eager to try out the idea of ​​AI services, 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 started a month ago” and already has customers.

The startup said it is working with customers including Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Fresenius on the delivery of AI-native projects. In a separate one blog post Announcing the venture, Sikka, 59, said Hang Ten was already helping major corporations “hang ten on the biggest wave of our lives.”

Hang Ten, headquartered in the Bay Area, told TechCrunch that it is hiring in delivery, engineering, sales and leadership and plans to expand to multiple locations worldwide to meet business demand.

The early team at the startup includes executives who have worked with Sikka for years at SAP, Infosys and his previous enterprise AI startup. ViaAIaccording to their LinkedIn profiles. Among them are co-founders Navin Budhiraja, the startup’s CTO; Sanjay Rajagopalan, chief designer; and Tao Liu, the senior vice president of forward deployed engineering.

After stepping down as CEO of Infosys 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 that Hang Ten is different from VianAI, describing Sikka’s previous venture as targeting a different market. VianAI focused on business AI applications and analytics tools designed to help companies use artificial intelligence in decision-making. Hang Ten, on the other hand, 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 and belief that the startup’s AI model can scale differently than traditional service companies.

“Traditional services scale linearly with headcount,” says Mayfield. “Hang Ten is built so that its influence grows with each project.”

Hang Ten emerges as investors debate how AI will impact the economics of the IT services sector. Analysts at Jefferies argued earlier this year that IT services may be among the first sectors to experience meaningful AI disruption. Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani, however, this week said AI could expand the industry’s addressable market.

Infosys itself has tried to position AI as an opportunity rather than a threat, telling investors this month that “AI-first services” represent a $300 billion to $400 billion market by 2030. The debate comes at a time when investors are reassessing the prospects for traditional IT services companies, with Infosys shares down more than 35% this year.