Hang Ten Systems, an AI startup founded in May by former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka, has increased its seed funding by $53 million, bringing total seed-stage capital to $85 million. The new round closed just five weeks after the company completed an initial $32 million seed round.
The latest investment was led by Xora, Temasek’s early-stage investment platform. Mayfield, which led the earlier round, also participated. Additional investors include Aramco Ventures, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, who serves on Hang Ten’s board.
Business focus and early customer traction
Hang Ten advises large enterprises — typically those with more than $10 billion in annual revenue — on AI strategy and helps build and modernize their software systems. Vishal Sikka has argued that AI is shifting software development away from writing code toward defining requirements and validating system behavior, such that the marginal cost and time of building software are approaching zero.
The company says its thesis is resonating with customers: within 25 days of an initial meeting with one client, Hang Ten signed a multimillion-dollar contract to build a mission-critical system. Sikka said he had never seen enterprise deals move that quickly.
Hang Ten is working with a mix of existing clients and late-stage prospects across 21 major enterprises, with some opportunities in proposal or contract-negotiation stages. The startup has secured multiple seven-figure contracts and is pursuing eight-figure deals. Its customers are located across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia and include Fresenius Kabi, Saudi Aramco, and Siemens Energy.
Technology approach and competition
Rather than building another foundational AI model, Hang Ten focuses on adapting AI to the complex software-development processes of large enterprises. CTO Sanjay Rajagopalan told TechCrunch that engineers rely on an in-house framework called Hobie, which packages reusable AI “skills” tailored for regulated industries and complex enterprise projects.
Rajagopalan emphasized that Hang Ten delivers production software, not just proofs of concept. He noted the startup can deploy teams of about two to four people on some projects that might previously have required approximately 30 people, though customers or independent third parties still handle final quality checks and certification. The company promises clients up to a tenfold improvement in cost, speed, or a combination of the two.
This work places Hang Ten in direct competition with traditional systems integrators: Sikka said many engagements replace incumbent providers, while more than half of current opportunities are new projects companies had previously postponed.
Use of proceeds and hiring plans
With the new capital, Hang Ten plans to expand its engineering, consulting, and sales teams. The Palo Alto–headquartered startup currently employs about 20 to 25 people across the U.S., the Middle East, and Australia and expects to hire in Europe and India.
Acquisition interest and Sikka’s background
Despite being only four months old, Hang Ten has reportedly received acquisition offers from "very big companies," which Sikka said the startup has declined for now as it focuses on growth. He did not disclose the potential buyers.
Before founding Hang Ten, Sikka co-founded enterprise AI startup VianAI in 2019 after leaving Infosys in 2017. VianAI raised $50 million in seed funding and later secured $140 million in a 2021 round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. According to Sikka’s LinkedIn profile, he left VianAI in April; he told TechCrunch that VianAI is "going through a transaction" but declined to give further details.
Final note
Sikka has said Hang Ten’s advantage is that it does not carry the burden of legacy systems and organizational transformation. The company’s name references the surfing move "hang ten," in which a surfer places all ten toes over the front of the board — a metaphor, Sikka says, for helping enterprises ride what he calls "probably the biggest wave of our lives" in AI.
