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Tech Beat
Sep 1, 2026, 4:31 PMStartups

Sequoia-incubated Empirik launches with $21M to predict outages

Before joining Sequoia Capital in 2020 as chief digital and information officer, Avon Puri spent over a decade running infrastructure at Rubrik and VMware.…

Summary

Before joining Sequoia Capital in 2020 as chief digital and information officer, Avon Puri spent over a decade running infrastructure at Rubrik and VMware. Three years ago, as large language models began showing their true potential, Puri, alongside another Sequoia IT leader, Sudheer Dhurjati, recognized that AI could help autonomously solve a major challenge for infrastructure engineers — preventing tech outages before they occur. The two tech veterans realized that instead of reacting to system failures after the fact, they could build a tool to predict them. This insight led them to build Empirik, a product that tracks system changes and infers their potential ripple effects across the entire infrastructure.

Positives

  • Empirik announced Tuesday that it is spinning out as an independent company after raising $21 million in seed funding from Sequoia, Canapi, and Alumni Ventures.

Risks & concerns

  • The two tech veterans realized that instead of reacting to system failures after the fact, they could build a tool to predict them.
Primary sourceTechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2026/09/01/sequoia-incubated-empirik-launches-with-21m-to-predict-outages-before-they-happen/
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