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

Former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka has launched Hang Ten Systems, a new enterprise AI services startup backed by a $32 million seed round led by Mayfield, aiming to automate software development and maintenance work traditionally handled by large IT outsourcing firms [1]. The Bay Area-based company, whose board includes Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, said it is already working with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Fresenius on AI-native project delivery [1]. Sikka, 59, described the venture as helping large enterprises "hang ten on the biggest wave of our lifetimes" [1]. The startup is hiring across delivery, engineering, sales, and leadership roles globally to meet enterprise demand [1]. Mayfield Managing Partner Navin Chaddha said the company "just got started a month back" and already has customers [1]. The firm backed Hang Ten because of Sikka's career experience and its belief that the startup's AI-native model can scale differently from traditional services firms [1]. "Traditional services scale linearly with headcount. Hang Ten is built so its leverage grows with every project," Mayfield stated [1]. Sikka spent 12 years building enterprise software at SAP and later served as a board member for Oracle before leading Infosys [1]. He stepped down as Infosys chief executive in 2017 [1]. The following year, he 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 [1]. Chaddha told TechCrunch that Hang Ten is distinct from VianAI, which focused on enterprise AI applications and analytics tools for decision-making [1]. Hang Ten describes itself as an enterprise AI services company built around agentic code generation, reusable AI skills, and domain expertise [1]. The launch comes as the IT services industry faces questions about AI-driven disruption. Analysts at Jefferies argued earlier this year that IT services may be among the first sectors to face meaningful AI disruption [1]. Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani countered this week that AI could expand the industry's addressable market [1]. Infosys told investors this month that "AI-first services" could represent a $300 billion-$400 billion market by 2030 [1]. Infosys shares are down over 35% this year [1]. The broader AI landscape has seen rapid expansion since OpenAI's release of ChatGPT in November 2022, which catalyzed widespread interest in generative AI [2]. Enterprise-focused AI firms such as Cohere, founded in 2019, have specialized in large language models for regulated industries including finance, healthcare, and manufacturing [5]. The competition for AI talent and enterprise contracts has intensified as Big Tech companies — Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta — have poured billions into AI development, collectively making up about a quarter of the S&P 500 [6]. Hang Ten's early leadership includes co-founders Navin Budhiraja as CTO, Sanjay Rajagopalan as chief design officer, and Tao Liu as senior vice president of forward deployed engineering — executives who have worked with Sikka across SAP, Infosys, and VianAI [1]. The startup also received a strategic investment from Aramco Ventures and participation from angel investors [1].