The Parsec founders are back with a new startup that wants people and AI agents sharing the same high-end workstation. The company, called Phaze, has raised an $8.75 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The pitch is secure remote computer access for two kinds of users — and one of them did not need a desktop until very recently.

The Details of the Round

Phaze, which is based in New York City, announced the funding on Wednesday, November 4, 2026. Andreessen Horowitz, the venture firm better known as a16z and one of Silicon Valley's most prolific backers of early-stage technology companies, led the round, with Indie, NextView, Makers, and Lerer Hippeau also taking part. The company plans to put the money toward growing its engineering team, building out the product, and scaling up its customer base.

Phaze is still a young, small company. It has approximately ten employees, was founded around 2024, and started rolling out beta releases in 2026.

What Phaze Actually Does

At its core, Phaze streams a powerful computer to wherever a user happens to be sitting. Someone can work from a modest local machine while the heavy computational lifting happens on a remote workstation that feels as though it sits under their desk.

The technical goal is low-latency access that feels local, and that is why Phaze is targeting graphics-intensive work. The company names 3D design tools, CAD software, Blender, and Unreal Studio as core use cases.

The more unusual feature is shared sessions between humans and AI agents. A person and an AI agent can work inside the same remote session in real time. As AI tools move beyond chat interfaces toward agents that operate software directly, agents need an actual desktop environment to run in — a shared session means one machine can serve both. Phaze also supports model context protocol (MCP) servers, an open standard introduced by Anthropic in 2024 and widely adopted for connecting AI agents to external tools and data, which allow agents to handle background tasks. Put simply, an AI agent can keep working on chores within the session while the human focuses on something else.

For corporate buyers, the platform also includes enterprise IT controls. Centralized management and audit logging are built in, so IT teams can see exactly who accessed what, and when — the kind of visibility enterprise buyers typically expect before deploying a tool across a workforce.

A Familiar Playbook from Familiar Founders

Phaze is the second company in this space for founders Benjy Boxer and Chris Dickson — a category they already know well. Their first was Parsec, founded in 2016, which became a leader in graphics-intensive remote access, with technology that began in game streaming before expanding into professional work. Unity, the company behind one of the gaming industry's most widely used game engines, acquired Parsec in 2021.

Why the Timing Works

Phaze is arriving at a moment when hardware is getting more expensive. Hardware costs have reportedly climbed to three times higher, which makes buying a top-tier workstation for every employee a much harder budget conversation. Shared high-end machines are the obvious workaround: if a single powerful workstation can serve several people — and a few AI agents — the math starts to look different. With beta access underway and the new capital earmarked for engineering, product, and customers, the near-term markers to watch are how quickly Phaze converts early users into paying customers and how widely its human-agent shared sessions find a place in day-to-day workflows.

Originally reported by CryptoBriefing. The source article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez.