Sigma Automate Raises $2.75M to Deliver the 'Easy Button' IT Automation Actually Promised

Automation tools were supposed to be a "big easy button.”

Automation would handle the tedious, the complex, and the critical, freeing up tech teams to focus on what actually matters. The reality, according to Richard Shaaya, CEO of Sigma Automate, Inc., has been far less satisfying.

"A lot of people think this problem has been solved," Shaaya said. But the outages, the patching headaches, and the system complexity means there is more strain on IT teams than ever.

The gap between expectation and reality comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding of what AI can and can't do on its own within businesses.

"AI is great for reasoning, but not intelligence," Shaaya explained to Hypepotamus. In other words, AI can analyze a problem and determine a course of action. But without a proper execution layer, that reasoning never translates into results.

Sigma was built to change that. The Atlanta-based startup, which came out of stealth officially last week, is positioning itself as the "cohesive layer for IT automation" and the execution arm that puts AI's reasoning to work.

"Sigma is the execution engine for agentic AI in IT," Shaaya said, "enabling accessible automation for infrastructure, cost optimization, and security enforcement through a no-code, intuitive visual platform."

The platform's visual workflow builder allows IT administrators to construct and deploy complex automations quickly. Under the hood, Sigma detects issues and triggers instant remediation before they cascade into outages. The platform also handles patch management, continuous security enforcement, configuration drift detection, and one-click compliance remediation to ensure IT teams aren’t up all night dealing with the next big issue.

Learning the Problem From the Inside

Shaaya lived the problem he is looking to solve.

Before founding Sigma, Shaaya built his IT and cybersecurity career at large enterprises like WellStar Health System, Northside Hospital, and The Home Depot. As he recalled to Hypepotamus, he was often on the team answering messages at 3am when IT problems and outages hit.

"I got to know the problem as a practitioner," Shaaya said.

Shaaya is building Sigma alongside co-founders Ben Barbour (previously at Lapetus Solution) and Greg Arnette (previously at Sonian (acquired by Barracuda) and IntelliReach (acquired by Wipro)).

Behind The Funding News

While new to the startup world, Shaaya has found quick traction from the investor community.

Sigma Automate recently announced the close of its $2.75 million seed round led by Boston-based Glasswing Ventures, with participation from a group of high-profile angel investors. The round had quietly closed in June 2025 but waited until spring 2026 to emerge fully out of stealth.

Sigma is launching publicly with a growing roster of Fortune 1000 and mid-market customers across retail, logistics, and healthcare. Among them is SiteOne Landscape Supply, one of the largest wholesale distributors of landscaping products in the United States, which deployed Sigma to manage thousands of virtual machines across multiple data centers.

"Sigma has fundamentally simplified how we manage our IT infrastructure," said Eric Baldwin, Senior Infrastructure Manager at SiteOne. "What used to take multiple tools and manual effort is now automated end-to-end, allowing our team to focus on the business instead of maintaining systems."

Other big logos using Sigma in its early days include Elemental Machines, the YMCA, Sandals, and Drift (now part of Salesloft).

Behind the product is a lean team of eight, which Shaaya said is weighted heavily toward engineering.

The company is targeting and selling to senior IT managers, CIOs, and CTOs at enterprises with hundreds of disconnected systems. With fresh capital, a validated product, and a founding team that understands the problem from every angle, Sigma is betting that the "big easy button" IT teams were promised is finally within reach.