The Enterprise Infrastructure Software Fund

    Backing the Foundation ofEnterprise AI.

    We invest in the infrastructure that powers the next generation of AI-native enterprise. Seed & Series A. Full-stack support.

    Our Story

    Investing at the Seed & Series A stage across the AI-native infrastructure stack

    This shift is driven by a fundamental transformation: AI is collapsing the boundary between software, labor, and decision-making. What emerges is a new enterprise architecture—systems that continuously learn, reason, and act.

    Our investment focus is grounded in two core observations.

    First, the enterprise stack is being fundamentally rebuilt.

    Software is no longer handcrafted—it is generated, orchestrated, and continuously refined by AI. Teams now operate within a new execution harness of AI coding systems and embedded agents, where multiple workflows run in parallel and systems evolve in real time.

    What emerges is a new enterprise stack

    not applications → but agents

    not workflows → but autonomous systems

    not static software → but continuously learning infrastructure

    Second, startups looking to scale at early stage are presented a new kind of challenge.

    In an AI-native world, software is no longer written linearly—it is generated, iterated, and deployed through AI coding systems, multi-agent workflows, and continuous integration loops. This introduces a fundamentally different development paradigm, where models, tools, and developers operate together in tightly coupled systems.

    At First Rays, we bring a specialized perspective across enterprise infrastructure and B2B systems—helping founders architect, scale, and operate within this new paradigm.

    First Rays team gathering from the original Our Story page
    First Rays team at CISO & Founders Breakfast event
    First Rays Executive Dinner Gathering at RSA 2024

    Our Thesis

    Investing in the AI-first world.

    Traditional SaaS moats are breaking. Intelligence itself — the thing we once treated as scarce — is rapidly becoming abundant. Models improve continuously, open weights proliferate, inference costs fall, and the marginal cost of generating high-quality output trends toward zero. Intelligence is no longer a differentiator.

    Our litmus test: if foundation models improve 10× in 24 months, does this company's moat get stronger — or weaker?

    Key Focus Areas

    Where durable moats emerge.

    01

    thesis.data_infrastructure()

    Agents need semantics, validation, provenance, and drift resilience across both structured and unstructured data.

    A bad decision by a human is one failure. A bad decision by an agent operating at machine speed across distributed systems is catastrophic. As models improve, they get better at handling unstructured data on their own. Structured data is a different problem. Incumbent data layers were designed for human, not agent, consumption — and LLMs still need purpose-built infrastructure to integrate and manage them reliably.

    02

    thesis.ai_agents()

    Autonomous agents are shifting software from tools humans operate to systems that execute entire workflows independently.

    We are entering an era where AI agents don't just assist — they replace entire job functions. Agents can now research, draft, negotiate, code, schedule, and close loops across systems without human intervention. This creates massive demand for new infrastructure: orchestration layers that coordinate multi-agent workflows, identity and permissions frameworks for non-human actors, observability for autonomous decision chains, and guardrails that ensure agents operate within policy. The companies that build the connective tissue between agents and enterprise systems — the authentication, the memory, the tool-use protocols — will capture outsized value as work itself gets automated at machine speed.

    03

    thesis.cybersecurity()

    AI-native threats break every assumption legacy cybersecurity was built on.

    Attack cost approaches zero. Adding intelligence to legacy architectures improves efficiency, not resilience. AI has dramatically expanded the attack surface while also creating new defensive advantages. The rise of autonomous attackers is forcing a rethink of how security is built, deployed, and defended — creating opportunity for a new generation of cyber platforms. As the cost to create plummets, the world is going to be awash in danger and low trust — owning your inputs, and guaranteeing safety and security is something people will pay for.

    04

    thesis.vertical_software()

    Evolving from systems of record into systems of action — capturing more of the customer workflow and directly replacing labor costs.

    Many of the most attractive opportunities are emerging within legacy service businesses, where AI-native models can deliver software-like scalability with service-level outcomes. Generative AI unlocks the rest of the organization: speech, emails, drawings, contracts, sensor feeds — everything outside rows and columns. When you mine that unstructured world, you touch far more value and your addressable market expands dramatically. Lower engineering costs mean founders can tackle neighboring problems without burning the house down. AI widens the revenue pool, slashes service cost, commoditizes shallow features, and cheapens expansion.

    Our Team

    Seasoned operators with strong early stage track record, extensive Technical and GTM network & expertise.

    01

    Deep Operator DNA

    Not Armchair Advice

    We have built products, shipped code, run GTM teams, and scaled orgs. Our partners and advisors are practitioners constantly looking for new emerging solutions.

    02

    Modern View of Company Building

    Accelerating Founder Learning Velocity

    We work with founders on their early building phase, providing hands-on support across product, talent, and go-to-market.

    03

    High-Conviction, High-Intensity

    The Opposite of Spray and Pray

    We invest in fewer companies, go deeper, and stay involved through inflection points. Founders partner with us because of the force multiplier at the exact moment they are most resource-constrained.

    Amit Sridharan

    Amit Sridharan

    Co-founder & Managing Partner

    Investor and operator focused on enterprise AI across data platforms, autonomy, cybersecurity, and early stage company building.

    Read full bio
    Alok Nandan

    Alok Nandan

    Co-founder & Managing Partner

    Investor and operator with a background spanning AI infrastructure, enterprise software, Microsoft Azure, and venture-backed company building.

    Read full bio
    Jenny Sohn

    Jenny Sohn

    Partner & CFO

    Seasoned CFO well-versed in B2B/C SaaS private companies. Served as Audit Chair providing stewardship for operations, transactions and equity/debt raises across multiple private companies. Holds a MBA degree from UC Berkeley Haas.

    Specialized Support

    What makes First Rays Unique

    We engage when product, market, and strategy are fluid — focusing on how founders understand users, validate markets, and build scalable foundations.

    Discovery

    Identify user needs and initial insight

    Validation

    Test market fit and refine value

    Productization

    Build scalable product foundations

    Go-to-Market

    Launch strategy and commercialize

    Invest with Clarity

    We invest with clarity, not just capital.

    Execute to Milestones

    We help founders find the right milestones and execute towards them.

    Manufacture Proof

    Systematic proof through customer discovery and real-world product testing.

    Case Profiles

    Stories from our portfolio.

    Cloud Native Data Replication

    Arcion

    Gary Hagmueller, CEO · Rajkumar Sen, CTO

    Strong Patent PortfolioReal-time Data MobilityCloud-native Architecture

    Arcion is the world's only cloud-native, real-time data mobility platform. It enables data teams to build zero-maintenance data pipelines in minutes, not months.

    Why We Invested

    Arcion is focusing on a strong industry problem that has not been solved as Enterprises are looking for solutions to seamlessly sync data real time across databases as modern cloud-based data analytics starts to take off.

    "First Rays have been a tremendous asset and guiding light from day one. They have always been one text and phone call away, a dream for founders."

    Rajkumar Sen, Co-founder

    Vibe Coding Security

    Backslash Security

    Shahar Man, Co-founder & CEO · Yossi Pik, Co-founder & CTO

    Vibe Coding SecurityZero-Trust PoliciesReal-Time Threat Detection

    Backslash Security provides visibility, governance, and real-time protection for enterprise AI development ecosystems — securing vibe coding workflows across AI agents, MCP servers, and AI models.

    Why We Invested

    As AI-assisted coding becomes ubiquitous, enterprises face a new attack surface. Backslash is uniquely positioned to secure the entire AI development lifecycle with zero-trust policies and real-time threat detection.

    "First Rays understood our vision from day one — that securing AI-driven development would become a critical enterprise need. Their deep cybersecurity expertise and network have been invaluable."

    Shahar Man, CEO

    AI-Driven Accounting Automation

    Docyt

    Sidharth Saxena, CEO · Sugam Pandey, CTO

    hpAI ArchitectureAI Accounting CopilotAI Agents

    Docyt's AI Accounting Copilot, powered by its proprietary High Precision Accounting Intelligence (hpAI) architecture, deploys specialized AI agents — from categorization and reconciliation to month-end closing — to automate end-to-end bookkeeping with 99%+ accuracy for small & medium enterprises.

    Why We Invested

    Docyt is using its hpAI architecture and fleet of AI agents to target the large and underserved small-business & mid-market accounting automation market, replacing expensive legacy software with intelligent, real-time financial automation.

    "The secret to high growth startups is high speed investors. Every interaction with the team has been full of micro accelerators — from introductions to customers, expert guidance, GTM course corrections, to setting up ambitious milestones."

    Sid Saxena, CEO

    AI Edge Connectivity & QoX

    Cloudbrink

    Prakash Mana, CEO

    Edge-native ArchitectureQoX FocusOne-click Deployment

    Cloudbrink's reimagined converged edge platform delivers seamless, low-latency connectivity for AI workloads and the AI-first enterprise — providing LAN-like access and security to users and applications anywhere.

    Why We Invested

    In the AI-first world, distributed AI workloads demand ultra-low latency and fiber-like data speeds at the edge. Traditional architectures and even SD-WAN fail to meet these demands. Cloudbrink provisions on the edge, closer to the last mile, enabling enterprises to run AI at scale.

    "First Rays has been an incredible partner to us. Their in-depth understanding of the enterprise networking/security, and insightful feedback has been very helpful especially as we plan for the next round of scale and growth."

    Prakash Mana, CEO