Geniez AI Secures $6M Seed Round to Bridge Enterprise Mainframes and AI
September 9, 2025
byFenoms Start-Ups
Geniez AI, a London-based startup, has raised $6,000,000 in its Seed round to redefine how enterprises connect their most mission-critical systems with the transformative power of AI. The round was backed by StageOne Ventures (Herzliya, Israel) and Canapi Ventures (Washington, D.C.), both seasoned investors in enterprise technology and next-gen infrastructure.
At the heart of Geniez AI is the GenAI Framework, a platform that seamlessly integrates Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI agents with real-time mainframe data sources and services. For decades, mainframes have been the backbone of global industries - banking, insurance, logistics, and government - but their data often remains locked in silos, slow to extract, and difficult to apply in modern AI-driven environments. Geniez AI is here to break those barriers.
Unlocking the Hidden Value of Mainframe Data
Mainframes still handle 70% of the world’s IT workloads, processing billions of transactions every day across industries like finance, retail, and transportation. Yet enterprises struggle to use this data for anything beyond operational needs. AI systems, despite their sophistication, often lack direct access to this rich, structured and unstructured data that sits inside mainframes.
Geniez AI’s technology offers a bridge - connecting LLMs and AI agents directly with these data pipelines. By doing so, it enables:
- Sophisticated AI-driven analysis for risk, compliance, and customer experience.
- Automation of routine mainframe tasks that currently consume expensive engineering resources.
- Real-time decision-making across mission-critical operations, from credit approvals to logistics tracking.
- Data accessibility without requiring wholesale system replacements or massive replatforming efforts.
This approach not only saves enterprises millions but also helps them compete in a world where AI-native challengers are moving faster with more agility.
Where Geniez AI Fits in the Enterprise AI Landscape
Unlike generic AI solutions that often work well in prototypes but stumble in production, Geniez AI is focused on enterprise readiness. Their framework is designed with scalability, compliance, and data governance in mind - critical needs for industries with high regulatory oversight like banking and healthcare.
Instead of trying to rip and replace legacy systems, Geniez AI recognizes that mainframes aren’t going anywhere. By augmenting them with AI, enterprises can have the best of both worlds: the reliability of mainframes and the intelligence of modern AI agents.
The Founder Behind the Vision
Geniez AI is co-founded by Gil Peleg, a veteran entrepreneur and enterprise software leader with over 25 years of experience building disruptive solutions and scaling them to market. His experience in both the technical and business sides of enterprise innovation positions Geniez AI not just as a product company, but as a potential category leader in enterprise AI–mainframe integration.
Peleg’s vision is clear: “Mainframes aren’t relics - they’re untapped gold mines. The enterprises that find a way to unlock them with AI will dominate their industries.”
The Subtle Truth About Enterprise AI Adoption
Here’s a hard-earned truth many founders miss when selling into enterprises: innovation alone doesn’t close deals - risk mitigation does.
Executives in banking, insurance, and government aren’t measured by how quickly they adopt the newest AI framework. They’re measured by stability, compliance, and uptime. This means startups pitching AI to enterprises must frame their solutions not as “shiny” technology, but as risk-reducing infrastructure upgrades.
Geniez AI is an example of this principle in action. By showing that their framework enhances rather than disrupts existing mainframe processes, they’re reducing perceived risk and aligning with enterprise KPIs. For founders, this is a reminder: when you’re selling to enterprise, your real product is confidence. AI is just the enabler.
Why Investors Are Paying Attention
StageOne Ventures and Canapi Ventures are not new to enterprise infrastructure bets. Their decision to back Geniez AI reflects a larger trend in the AI space: the enterprise market is shifting from “AI experiments” to “AI in production.”
The reasons are clear:
- Locked value in mainframes: According to IBM, 71% of Fortune 500 companies still run core operations on mainframes, representing trillions in daily transactions.
- AI market growth: The global AI in enterprise applications market is projected to surpass $200 billion by 2030 (Grand View Research).
- Integration vs. replacement: Gartner notes that over 60% of enterprises pursuing digital transformation initiatives prefer integration-first strategies over risky system overhauls.
- Regulatory push: In banking and healthcare, regulators are increasingly requiring real-time insights and compliance reporting - something traditional mainframes can’t deliver alone.
Geniez AI’s positioning as a bridge technology is therefore not just smart - it’s timely.
Industry Outlook: The Convergence of Mainframes and AI
The AI revolution has been fueled by cloud-native datasets and agile startups. But the next wave of AI value creation will come from bringing AI into the hard, entrenched, high-value systems that actually run the global economy.
Some key indicators:
- Financial Services: Mainframes handle 44 of the world’s top 50 banks’ core systems, yet only 12% of them currently use AI natively (IDC). Bridging this gap represents multi-billion-dollar efficiency gains.
- Insurance: Claims processing, fraud detection, and customer onboarding all run on mainframe workflows. AI could reduce claims resolution times by up to 40% (McKinsey).
- Retail & Logistics: Enterprises like Walmart and FedEx rely on mainframes for inventory and logistics. AI-driven insights could cut supply chain delays by up to 25% (Deloitte).
- Public Sector: Governments using mainframes for citizen services could unlock massive productivity gains through AI-driven automation and translation.
In short, the real AI gold rush isn’t just in cloud apps - it’s in bringing intelligence to the untouched 70% of enterprise workloads still sitting in mainframes. Geniez AI is one of the first movers in this untapped space.
What’s Next for Geniez AI
With its $6M Seed funding secured, Geniez AI will focus on:
- Expanding its engineering team to scale the GenAI Framework.
- Piloting with large enterprises in financial services and insurance.
- Building out compliance-ready features for regulated industries.
- Strengthening strategic partnerships with enterprise IT providers.
This early traction could position Geniez AI as a critical infrastructure player in the enterprise AI ecosystem.
Final Thoughts
Geniez AI’s $6M Seed raise isn’t just another AI funding headline - it’s a glimpse into the future of enterprise transformation. By unlocking mainframe data with LLMs and AI agents, Geniez AI is turning decades-old infrastructure into a driver of modern intelligence.
As industries move from experimentation to production AI, solutions like Geniez AI are set to define the next chapter of enterprise innovation.