Co-founder and CTO of Celona Mehmet Yavuz is changing the face of enterprise. Yavuz and his team have developed industry’s first AI-powered private LTE/5G solution. This will make cellular technology available to every business.
This latest leap in enterprise networks finds recognition in a $60 million funding round, bringing their total funding to $100 million. According to Celona, 5G enterprise represents a software ‘revolution’.
Mehmet Yavuz: Engineer and Entrepreneur
Yavuz began his career working as a Senior Research Engineer at General Electric. He then worked at Nortel Networks, helping to develop wireless data networks, before becoming VP of Engineering at Qualcomm. There he issued over 160 patents with USPTO and won the Qualcomm IP Excellence Award in 2013. Yavuz cites its founder Irwin Jacobs as his biggest influence.
After 14 years at Qualcomm, Yavuz became CTO of Ruckus Networks. This wealth of experience then led him to co-found Celona in 2019, for which he now acts as CTO. Celona specifically provides unprecedented integration of cellular wireless with existing enterprise IT infrastructures.
Mehmet Yavuz hails from Turkey
Yavuz grew up in Ankara, Turkey. During his time there, he acquired his BSc in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Middle East Technical University.
Moving to the US, Yavuz studied at the University of Michigan, receiving his MSc there and then finally his Phd in Electrical Engineering.
Mehmet Yavuz and 5G
The advent of 5G has begun a revolution in the way enterprise operates, and Yavuz plays a big part in its rollout. With its high speeds, low latency and reliability, 5G will even enable companies to deploy private wireless networks for the very first time.
What sets Yavuz’s Celona apart from the crowd? Their easily usable solution designed for any IT department to be able to use. Moreover, Celona provides every component needed: “we’re currently one of very few platforms that deliver everything you need to deploy a private mobile network,” Yavuz says.
This is in keeping with Yavuz’s philosophy, in which customer focus is critical. After spending two years at the startup, it’s his biggest take away: “I realized that even if you have great technology, it means nothing if the end customer cannot use it. So you need to understand what the customer needs. What are the pain points? How do you make their lives easier and help them get to their goals?” he says.
Check out Celona here and learn more about the power of 5G.
