Vishal Sikka's AI startup Hang Ten raises $53M in fresh seed round, five weeks after initial $32M close

Hang Ten Systems, the startup launched by ex-Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka earlier this year, has announced a second seed injection of $53 million, arriving just weeks after its first $32 million seed close. The swift back-to-back raises bring total funding to $85 million and reflect investor appetite for Sikka's vision of using AI to transform enterprise software development.

Building software at AI speed#

Hang Ten, founded in May 2026, focuses on helping Fortune 500-scale companies—those with revenues exceeding $10 billion annually—rethink their software strategy and operations through AI. Rather than building new AI models, the startup acts as a strategic partner and delivery force, using its proprietary in-house framework called Hobie to package AI "skills" tailored to regulated industries and complex enterprise needs.

Sikka argues that AI has fundamentally altered software economics. "The build part itself has basically become close to zero marginal cost, close to zero time," he told TechCrunch. Instead of focusing on code writing, teams can now concentrate on defining what software should do and validating performance—a shift that dramatically accelerates timelines. The company promises clients a 10-fold improvement in cost, speed, or both, sometimes deploying just two to four engineers where traditional approaches would require 30.

Rapid enterprise traction#

Early customer wins underscore the market opportunity. Hang Ten has inked contracts with 21 major enterprises across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia—including Fresenius Kabi, Saudi Aramco, and Siemens Energy. The startup has landed multiple seven-figure deals and is pursuing eight-figure engagements. In one case, Sikka recounted closing a multimillion-dollar, mission-critical software contract within just 25 days of the first customer conversation—a pace he had never witnessed in enterprise deals.

The success caught the attention of lead investor Xora, Temasek's early-stage platform, which approached Hang Ten about investing. Mayfield, which backed the initial seed round, also participated; other backers include Aramco Ventures, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang (who sits on the board).

Competing with incumbents—and turning down acquirers#

Many of Hang Ten's engagements involve replacing traditional systems integrators, though more than half of its current pipeline consists of new projects that enterprises had previously shelved rather than work carved out from existing vendors. CTO Sanjay Rajagopalan emphasized that Hang Ten delivers "production software," not proof-of-concept experiments—a distinction that signals serious enterprise deployment, not pilots.