With $10 million in funding, the former president of Microsoft APAC launches kAIgentic to develop AI for multinational corporations

Ahmed Mazhari, the former president of Microsoft APAC, founded the agentic AI business kAIgentic in strategic collaboration with a $10 million investment from SMBC Group, one of the biggest financial organizations in Japan. In order to test AI systems inside actual banking procedures before branching out into other industries, kAIgentic is starting off with SMBC Group as its first client. The launch coincides with a larger change in the SaaS ecosystem, with enterprise AI expected to make up $71 billion of India's $126 billion AI industry by 2030.Ahmed Mazhari, a former president of Microsoft Asia Pacific (APAC), founded the agentic AI business kAIgentic in a strategic alliance with a $10 million investment from the Japanese multinational banking behemoth SMBC Group.

The startup is developing specialized AI deployment infrastructure for large-scale enterprise operations, with its headquarters located in Singapore and its primary technical operations located in India. In a calculated move that distinguishes it from other early-stage businesses, kAIgentic will launch its platform at SMBC Group and introduce its tech stack in a live, heavily regulated setting.The SMBC Group is a multinational financial organization. With a 400-year history and its headquarters in Tokyo, SMBC Group provides a wide range of financial services, such as consumer finance, banking, leasing, stocks, and credit cards. A three-year IT investment of almost JPY 1 trillion was recently announced by the group in April 2026. By enhancing talent, improving the operational environment, increasing employee training, and creating AI-native business processes, the investment will be used to modernize its IT infrastructure and hasten the implementation of AI.