Former Infosys chief’s AI startup nabs another $53M

Hang Ten Systems, an AI startup founded by former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka just four months ago, has expanded its seed funding by another $53 million. This new investment round was closed just five weeks after the initial $32 million seed round was closed, the company tells TechCrunch.

The fresh investment, led by Temasek’s early-stage investment platform Xora, takes Hang Ten’s total funding to $85 million. Mayfield, which led the startup’s earlier investment, also participated. Other investors include Aramco Ventures, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, who is also on its board.

Founded in May, Hang Ten is betting that AI can fundamentally reshape how large companies build and maintain software. The startup advises companies — typically with over $10 billion in annual revenue — on AI strategy and also helps build and modernize software.

“The build part itself has basically become close to zero marginal cost, close to zero time,” Sikka (pictured above) told TechCrunch. He argued that AI is shifting the focus of software development from writing code to defining requirements and validating whether systems perform as intended.

The thesis appears to be resonating with customers. Within 25 days of the first meeting with one customer, Hang Ten signed a multimillion-dollar contract to build a mission-critical software system, Sikka said, adding that he had never seen enterprise deals move that quickly.

Hang Ten is now working with a mix of existing customers and late-stage prospects spanning 21 major enterprises, Sikka said, with some prospects in the proposal or contract-negotiation stage. The startup has secured multiple seven-figure contracts and is pursuing eight-figure deals. Moreover, its customers span the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and include Fresenius Kabi, Saudi Aramco, and Siemens Energy.

“We are actually delivering production software,” Rajagopalan said. “It’s not like we are doing some kind of PoC.”