London-based IoT and edge computing company Balena has appointed Leon Hurst as chief executive as it looks to expand adoption of its platform among larger businesses and develop its Edge AI offering.
Hurst succeeds Balena’s three co-CEOs, Chris Crocker-White, Phil Wilson and Konstantinos Mouzakis, who will remain with the company in new executive positions.
He joins Balena after more than two decades working across technology, software and mobility, including senior positions at Flock, IMS, JATO Dynamics, Nokia and Jaguar Land Rover.
Balena develops software used by organisations to deploy, update, monitor and manage fleets of connected physical devices remotely. Its platform uses container-based technology and supports more than 100 hardware types across sectors including energy, EV infrastructure, industrial automation, healthcare, agriculture and robotics. The company says it has 600 customers globally and more than 850,000 devices under management.
Hurst said: “The team at Balena has built a remarkable foundation rooted in developer trust and deep product credibility. As Robotics and Physical AI shift intelligence from data centers into the physical world, managing edge systems at scale introduces an entirely new level of complexity. Balena has spent years removing that complexity for developers. My priority as CEO is to expand our enterprise capabilities and accelerate our Edge AI roadmap, helping organizations across industries move from prototype to large-scale deployment with the least friction and maximal speed while preserving the developer-first approach, reliability and security that have always been central to Balena.”
As part of the management changes, Crocker-White becomes chief experience officer, focusing on user and developer experience. Wilson becomes chief strategy officer, while Mouzakis becomes chief transformation officer.
Crocker-White said: “Balena’s focus is to continue lowering the barrier to entry and improving the experience when deploying technology into the physical world. This next chapter gives us the opportunity to pursue the mission with refreshed conviction and get our product into the hands of those that will benefit most.”
The company is backed by New York-based growth equity investor LoneTree Capital.
Peter Bozian, Principal at LoneTree Capital, said: “Balena has built a differentiated platform that addresses a fundamental challenge in this market: making it easier for organizations to deploy, secure and manage large fleets of devices without unnecessary complexity. We see significant room for Balena to expand its footprint across industries and larger enterprises, and we are excited to support Leon and the broader team as they execute on that opportunity.”
Image credit: Leon Hurst, Linkedin
