Enterprises want access to new software and AI tools but can’t risk sending their sensitive data out to a third-party software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers.

Tensor9 aims to help software companies gain more enterprise customers by deploying their software directly into the tech stack of a customer.

Tensor9 transforms the code of a software vendor into a format that can be deployed into a customer’s technology environment. Tensor9 creates a digital replica of the software that has been deployed, or a miniature model of its infrastructure. This allows Tensor9 customers to monitor the software’s performance in the customer’s environment. Tensor9 is able to help companies deploy software into any premise, from cloud servers to bare metal servers. Tensor9 CEO and co-founder Michael Ten-Pow told TechCrunch the company’s ability to deploy software in any environment, as well as its use of digital-twin technology for remote monitoring, makes Tensor9 different from other companies like Octopus Deploy and Nuon that help companies do the same. Ten-Pow (pictured left) explained that it is difficult to just throw software over a wall and then know what’s happening, find problems, debug them and fix them. “They can see it running, debug it, log in and understand the issues and fix them.” They want to adopt AI technology, but they can’t send their data to a 3rd-party.

Ten-Pow explained that “an enterprise search vendor would go to J.P. Morgan, for example, and ask to access all six petabytes to build an intelligent layer on top so that internal employees could have a dialogue with their company’s information.” This is not possible. Ten-Pow is an ex-engineer from AWS. He said that he had “a long, fairly winding road” to launch Tensor9. He came up with the idea for Tensor9 while working on a different idea that didn’t pan out. He spent time trying to find a way for software vendors that require SOC 2 certification, a cybersecurity framework, to be able to unlock customers who required it.

Although that didn’t work, he learned from customer calls that enterprises wanted the software to run in their own tech environments. Many software companies, particularly startups, do not have the resources necessary to offer a tailored on-premise solution for each enterprise client. Ten-Pow launched Tensor9 in 2024, based on this sentiment. In the second half of the year, he recruited two of his former AWS colleagues, Matthew Michie, and Matthew Shanker as co-founders.

Early on, the company gained traction with voice-AI companies. Since then, the company has expanded to other verticals, including enterprise search, enterprise database and data management. The company works with AI companies such as 11x, Retell AI, and Dyna AI.

Tensor9 bootstrapped its first year, and recently raised a seed round of $4 million led by Wing VC, with participation from Level Up Ventures and Devang Sachdev, of Model Ventures. NVAngels is an angel group made up of ex-Nvidia staff, and other angel investors. Ten-Pow explained that getting investors to buy into the idea was not difficult because the VCs he spoke with had seen portfolio companies struggle with the same problem. Tensor9 only had to convince investors they were the best team for the job. Ten-Pow explained that “under the covers, there’s a great deal of complexity and hard technical challenges we’ve overcome to make this happen.” “I think this was one of the reasons that convinced investors to invest in our company.

” The company plans to utilize the funding to hire and build out the next-generation of its technology to work with customers across more verticals. Ten-Pow stated that “there’s been a evolution from [on premise] into the cloud, and we think this idea of software living where it’s needed, and operating where it’s needed, is the next step.”