Geniez AI, a startup developing technology to integrate artificial intelligence with legacy mainframe systems, said it raised $6 million in seed funding co-led by StageOne Ventures and Canapi Ventures.
The company’s platform, according to the announcement, enables large language models and AI agents to access real-time data from mainframe computers, which still power critical operations at major banks, insurers and government agencies despite being decades-old technology.
Geniez AI’s framework runs natively on mainframes and provides connectivity to modern AI systems including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Meta’s Llama models, allowing enterprises to analyze vast amounts of transactional and historical data without costly infrastructure overhauls.
“Mainframes are at the heart of the global economy, holding the most up to date transaction data as well as decades of historical data which are extremely valuable for AI,” said Gil Peleg, co-founder and CEO of Geniez AI. He added:
We’re giving enterprises the best of both worlds: the power and trust of the mainframe with the innovation and velocity of the AI ecosystem.
The technology addresses a growing challenge as enterprises across finance, insurance, retail, government and healthcare sectors invest heavily in generative AI while struggling to integrate these tools with legacy systems that house their most critical data.
The Geniez AI platform uses standard protocols including Model Content Protocol (MCP) to facilitate communication between mainframe data sources and AI applications running on-premises or in public clouds.
“AI is no longer a luxury for financial institutions and with most banks running on mainframes, Geniez AI is tackling a pain point that will unlock major value for them,” said Neil Underwood, co-founder and general partner at Canapi Ventures.
StageOne Ventures, which previously backed the founders’ earlier company Model9 before its acquisition by BMC Software in May 2023, expressed confidence in the team’s experience.
“The Geniez AI team has a proven track record of innovation in the mainframe space, previously founding Model9 (acquired by BMC Software in May 2023) and we’re excited to partner with them again,” said Yuval Cohen, founder and managing partner at StageOne Ventures.
The funding will support expansion of Geniez AI’s engineering and sales teams, development of partnerships with enterprise technology providers, and deeper integration with generative AI platforms.
The company’s approach allows enterprises to leverage AI capabilities for analysis, automation and decision-making while maintaining data security and avoiding the costs and risks associated with migrating critical systems to modern infrastructure.