Phaze Raises $8.75 Million Seed Led by a16z to Give People and AI Agents Access to Computers

Phaze turns expensive, underused workstations into computing power on demand for people and AI agents.

NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Phaze today announced it raised $8.75 million in seed funding led by a16z, with participation from Indie, NextView, Makers, and Lerer Hippeau.

Phaze gives people and AI agents remote access to powerful computers. For employees doing demanding work in 3D, design and software development, Phaze provides a high-performance remote desktop that makes a remote workstation feel local. For AI agents, it provides full control of a remote computer, including its graphical interface and applications, without requiring computer-use software to be installed on that machine.

As AI agents become capable of handling more complex work, companies want employees to use them to get more done, but they also want that work performed on machines they control. Phaze lets agents operate company-managed computers under existing identity and access management policies, whether they're testing software, troubleshooting IT problems or working in the background without taking over an employee's machine.

Phaze also lets companies manage expensive workstations as shared infrastructure rather than assigning each machine to one employee. With high-end workstations costing upwards of $10,000 and often sitting idle, companies can make better use of their existing hardware as both employees and AI agents need computing power.

One Remote Desktop for People and AI Agents

Phaze was built for demanding workloads where latency, responsiveness and visual quality matter. Its founders previously built Parsec, the high-performance remote access company acquired in 2021. They started Phaze after recognizing that people and AI agents would increasingly need access to powerful machines, creating demand for enterprise tools that make it easier to share and manage computing resources.

With Phaze, an artist or designer can remotely access a high-end workstation to work with complex 3D graphics. A developer can connect to a powerful machine to build software. IT teams can manage those workstations centrally, control who can access them, and assign and reassign machines as demand changes.

Phaze is now extending that same remote access to AI agents.

The company recently released an MCP server that lets computer-use agents remotely connect to and operate computers. Rather than simply connecting an agent to an API, Phaze gives the agent access to the computer itself, allowing it to interact with software and perform tasks on the machine.

That creates several new ways for agents to work. An agent can operate a separate computer in the background while its user continues working on their own machine. Developers can give coding agents access to computers where they can test applications and features. IT teams can allow support agents to remotely access employees' computers and attempt to resolve problems.

Phaze also lets people and AI agents collaborate within the same remote session, passing control back and forth as needed. A person can take over when an agent needs help, then hand control back so the agent can continue working.

In one early implementation, Phaze built an IT support agent that can remotely connect to an employee's computer, diagnose and attempt to fix an issue, then hand control to an authorized IT employee when it needs help. The employee can take over the remote session and then hand control back to the agent to finish the task.

Turning Workstations Into Shared Infrastructure

Making computers remotely accessible to people and agents changes how companies can manage the hardware they already own.

Instead of permanently assigning a workstation to one employee, IT teams can manage machines as a shared resource, control who or what can access them, and assign and reassign computers as demand changes. The hardware can sit on a desk, in a server room or in a data center while users and agents access it remotely.

"The computer sitting on your desk shouldn't determine what compute you can access," said Benjy Boxer, CEO and co-founder of Phaze. "People need powerful workstations to do their jobs, and now AI agents need computers they can actually operate. We're building the access layer that lets either one connect to the machine they need, wherever it happens to be."

Key capabilities include:

• High-performance remote desktop: Remotely operate powerful computers with the responsiveness and visual quality required for demanding professional workloads.
• Shared workstations: Assign and reassign machines across users rather than permanently tying expensive hardware to individual employees.
• AI agent access: Give computer-use agents access to remote computers through Phaze's MCP server.
• Background agent work: Let an AI agent perform work on a separate computer without taking over the machine its user is actively using.
• Human-agent collaboration: Allow authorized employees to take control from an AI agent when needed and hand the machine back when their work is complete.
• Centralized access controls: Enterprise authentication, directory sync, and audit logging let companies manage who can connect to which machines, enforce existing security policies, and ensure AI agents inherit the access permissions of their users.

New Funding Supports Product Development and Growth

Phaze will use the funding to expand its engineering team, accelerate product development and support customer growth.

"High-end compute is too expensive to sit idle on individual desks," said Martin Casado, General Partner at a16z. "Phaze is turning those machines into shared infrastructure for people and AI agents. Benjy, Chris, and their team have been building in this space for more than a decade, and they bring that experience to a new era of remote access and machine management. We're excited to support them again."

About Phaze

Phaze provides high-performance remote access to computers for people and AI agents. Phaze is headquartered in Utah. For more information, visit phaze.app.

SOURCE Phaze