Company name: Varaha Systems
Founded: April 2003
Location: Dallas
What does the company offer? uMobility, a set of three applications that together create a secure, optimized connection for data as well as voice, and for cellular-only phones as well as more advanced Wi-Fi/cellular phones. The software spans different kinds of cellular and Wi-Fi networks, and is designed to extend desktop PC and phone (via SIP PBX support) desktop phone features to mobile devices.
The applications are a mobile IPSec VPN that works with lots of popular VPN concentrators; software that on the client side gives end users a GUI to make and manage cellular and VoIP calls, with access to PBX features, and on the server side optimizes and manages voice call quality and handoffs across different networks (this was formerly two applications); and client/server code to automatically manage and maintain IP data, video and voice sessions, and support single sign-on, between different wireless networks.
Why is it worth watching? Varaha sees the mobile phone as a platform for data as well as voice applications. The goal is to forge a secure, high-quality, reliable link between mobile phone users and the enterprise data and voice features they need to do their jobs effectively.
How did the company get its start? The founders saw the opportunity to create a "mobile desk" – enabling cell phones as the primary communications tool, by exploiting enterprise data and voice features that have only been available to office workers.
How did the company get its name? Varaha is the name of a Himalayan peak, "one of the harder ones to climb," says co-founder and CTO Prasad Govindarajan, and therefore a metaphor for what the company is trying to accomplish. It's also the name of mountainous incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu.
CEO and background: Jogen Pathak, co-founder, formerly founder and CTO for Cyneta Networks. He holds several patents in wireless and convergence.
Funding: Not disclosed, from various individual investors.
Who's using the product? One customer has been announced, QMS Healthcare, a British medical group; new customers, along with distributors and partners, will be announced in September 2008.

Company name: Visage Mobile
Founded: Originally formed in October 2001, providing back-office subscriber management functions for mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) like Disney Mobile; acquired Agistics in June 2007, has just sold off its original product, to reinvent itself as an enterprise mobility management company.
Location: San Francisco
What does the company offer? MobilityCentral, a hosted software service launched in April 2008. It pulls user information from your enterprise directories, along with data pulled from your deployed mobile devices, and account data from your cellular carriers. It correlates all this, and creates up-to-date Web dashboard reports on the devices, their software loads and usage. You can compare planned cellular minutes and spending with actual usage data, for example. Monthly fee is typically about $5 per user.
Why is it worth watching? It means you can scrap all those Microsoft Excel spreadsheets you're using to keep track of this stuff, and get a centralized, accurate, up-to-date picture, based on hard data, about how your business is using, or misusing, cellular resources. Then you can refine policies, scrap plans, renegotiate rates, and predict and budget consistently for monthly cellular costs.
How did the company get its start? The original software was developed by Agistics, under CEO Dean Alms, who's now general manager for the hosted service at Visage Mobile. Visage Mobile acquired the company to exploit a growing need for enterprise control over burgeoning cellular costs.
How did the company get its name? The company's original business let MVNO's brand cellular service, creating a "new face" (hence, "visage") in the wireless market.
CEO and background: Executive Chairman Tim Weingarten is currently the acting CEO, taking over from Matt Johnson, one of Visage's original co-founders. Johnson left after the recent sale of the MVNO business to explore new opportunities, according to a spokeswoman. Weingarten has been a general partner at Worldview Technology Partners for eight years. He's been a seed investor and director of several start-ups, including Cogent Communications and Force10 Networks.
Funding: About $90 million, from Advanced Technology Partners, Emergence Capital Partners, Mobius Venture Capital, Worldview Technology Partners, Vesbridge Partners LLC.
Who's using the product? Chordiant Software and Visioneer have been announced. The company says there are others in high-tech, bio-tech and financial services.