Enterprise mobility firm Agito Networks names new CEO

Agito Networks, maker of a communications system that fuses enterprise phones with Wi-Fi and cellular networks, has named Amit Chawla as its chief executive.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company has been led by an acting CEO, chairman Dave Leonard, since its previous chief Ron Markovich left earlier in the year to pursue other opportunities.

The company makes the RoamAnywhere Mobility Router, which fuses enterprise communications with Wi-Fi, cellular, and internet communications so that workers can access company data or make phone calls from any location. With it, a worker could access a company directory on a mobile phone and immediately dial the extension or receive Wi-Fi or cell phone calls inside a building based on whichever signal is strongest. Call switching is instantaneous. Normally, the hand-off is rocky with other solutions.

The product — based on technology called fixed mobile convergence — is an appliance server that plugs into data center equipment. Rivals include Stoke, which also received a round of $41.8 million in a fourth round of funding this year.

Chawla has 24 years of experience in telecom management. Most recently, he was executive vice president for global business at Veraz Networks, an enterprise internet communications company. He also worked at the NGTS division of ECI Telecom, was CEO at NexVerse Networks and spent 13 years at Nortel Networks.

The company was founded in 2006 and is backed by Battery Ventures, Castile Ventures and ITX International. Chawla said the company is in a good cash position since it raised a $13 million round in June. To date, the company has raised $20 million. Chawla said the product has good market traction in North America and that Agito will be expanding in Europe in the first quarter.

The company has about 45 employees and said it has no immediate need to raise money.