Hang Ten Systems, an AI startup founded just four months ago by former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka, has quickly raised an additional $53 million in seed funding. This fresh injection follows the initial $32 million seed round completed only five weeks prior, bringing total funding to $85 million. The new round was led by Temasek’s Xora platform and included participation from Mayfield, Aramco Ventures, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, who also sits on the board.

The Palo Alto-based company focuses on revolutionizing how large enterprises—usually with revenues exceeding $10 billion—develop and maintain software by leveraging AI. Hang Ten advises clients on AI strategy and aids in modernization efforts, claiming that AI reduces the cost and time of software build to nearly zero marginal cost. Their approach shifts development emphasis from coding to specifying requirements and validating system performance, which has resonated strongly with clients. The startup has secured multiple high-value contracts, including seven-figure deals, with customers like Fresenius Kabi, Saudi Aramco, and Siemens Energy, and is pursuing even larger opportunities worldwide.

Hang Ten employs a proprietary AI framework called Hobie that delivers reusable AI capabilities for regulated industries and complex projects, enabling them to produce production-level software rather than proofs of concept. Co-founder and chief design officer Sanjay Rajagopalan noted the startup can complete projects with far smaller teams compared to traditional providers, often reducing team size from about 30 to just two to four. This efficiency has enabled Hang Ten to compete directly with established systems integrators, largely by winning new projects rather than displacing existing vendors. Despite their rapid early success, the company is declining acquisition offers from major corporations, choosing instead to focus on expanding its engineering, consulting, and sales teams.

Before founding Hang Ten, Vishal Sikka led another AI enterprise startup, VianAI, which raised substantial funding including a $140 million round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 before his departure earlier this year. With Hang Ten, Sikka aims to avoid the constraints of legacy systems and help enterprises capitalize on what he calls “the biggest wave of our lives” in AI. The firm’s name reflects this ambition, drawing from the surfing term “hang ten” to symbolize riding the AI innovation wave.