Phaze, a Utah-based venture founded by the team that created remote desktop software Parsec, has closed an $8.75M seed round led by a16z, with participation from Indie, NextView, Makers Fund and Lerer Hippeau. The platform allows both human workers and artificial intelligence agents to access powerful computers remotely, enabling organizations to consolidate their hardware investments rather than provisioning separate machines for each user.
The core premise behind Phaze addresses what the founders see as widespread inefficiency: companies purchasing high-end workstations that sit idle for portions of the day. By allowing machines to be shared dynamically between staff members and AI systems, organizations can optimize their capital expenditure on computing infrastructure. Designers and engineers can execute resource-intensive 3D modeling and design applications on remote machines, while AI agents simultaneously gain the ability to interact with computer interfaces and software applications.
The computer sitting on your desk shouldn't determine what compute you can access
Benjy Boxer, chief executive of Phaze
Phaze's AI agents connect through MCP, a standardized protocol for integrating artificial intelligence systems with external tools, which the company currently designates as experimental. In a demonstration scenario, a Slack-based bot receives an IT support request, establishes a connection to the relevant user's system, and escalates to human intervention when necessary. The platform enforces access controls such that agents operate only with the permissions their associated users possess.
Boxer previously founded Parsec, which Unity acquired for $320M in 2021. The competitive landscape for agent infrastructure is expanding, with other companies pursuing similar opportunities. Baseten acquired Blaxel, a sandbox environment for AI agents, in September, while Perplexity has developed functionality to convert a Mac mini into a continuously operational agent platform. Market interest in such solutions has proven substantial, evidenced by the rapid depletion of Mac mini inventory in the United States during spring as customers sought machines for agent deployment.
Source: The Next Web
