Vishal Sikka announces Hang Ten Systems, new AI services startup with $32 million in funding

Former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka has announced a new startup – Hang Ten Systems. Sikka says that the new startup is focused on providing AI services to clients. Hang Ten Systems has already raised $32 million in funding.

In Short

• Vishal Sikka launches new AI service startup called Hang Ten Systems
• Hang Ten Systems receives $32 million in seed funding, already has customers
• Sikka says startup will help clients do work of years in months with AI

At a time when uncertainty around the future of SaaS firms, particularly Indian IT giants, has increased due to AI, Vishal Sikka, who previously led Infosys, has launched a new startup that is focused around AI services – Hang Ten Systems. This startup, Sikka says, will provide AI services to clients at a time when companies are looking to integrate more AI services. And Hang Ten Systems seems to already have clients on board, just a month after the company was founded.

In a statement, Vishal Sikka called Hang Ten Systems a “new endeavor to help enterprises thrive in the age of AI.” The company has previously stated that it raised $32 million in seed funding led by Mayfield, with a strategic investment from Aramco Ventures and participation from angel investors.

Keep in mind that Vishal Sikka is known for understanding the potential of AI in its early days. He was central to Infosys’ $3 million donation to OpenAI almost a decade ago, long before the days of ChatGPT or similar AI tools.

Along with Sikka, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang is part of Hang Ten Systems. The early team also includes executives who have worked with Sikka across SAP, Infosys and his previous venture VianAI. This includes Navin Budhiraja, Sanjay Rajagopalan, and Tao Liu.

Hang Ten Systems already has customers, says Vishal Sikka

While the Indian IT industry has seen vast success with its software as a service (SaaS) model over the years, there are fears that this model could be replaced by AI entirely.

Hang Ten Systems on the other hand, seems to be an AI-native alternative to this model, with a focus on helping clients via agentic AI-powered code generation, reusable skills libraries and specialised engineering talent. In a statement, Sikka explained, “Every single enterprise will be transformed by AI. A few are already reaping massive benefits, building in days what used to take years. But most are stuck at the starting line, or worse, and the gap is widening every day.”

The former Infosys CEO claimed that Hang Ten Systems now already had some big companies as its clients, such as “Fresenius, Siemens Energy and others.”

Hang Ten Systems is said to be hiring for various roles, such as delivery, engineering, sales and leadership roles, and plans to grow across multiple locations.

Though this is not to say that Indian IT companies are not adapting to the AI race. Recently, Infosys’ Nandan Nilekani stated that AI could actually amplify the business of the company. Infosys, TCS and other IT firms are now also partnering with Anthropic and OpenAI to better integrate AI models. OpenAI and Anthropic too, have their own AI service companies now.

- Ends