| Industry | Computer networking |
|---|---|
| Founded | January 2005 |
| Fate | Acquired by Cisco Systems |
| Headquarters | Brooklyn, NY and Milan |
Key people | Umberto Malesci, CEO, Cosimo Malesci, EVP Sales, Alessandro Erta, CTO, Andrea Orioli, VP Operations |
| Website | http://www.fluidmesh.com |
Fluidmesh Networks was a hardware and software manufacturer of wireless point-to-point networks, wireless point-to-multipoint networks, and wireless mesh networks.[1] Fluidmesh products are used in video-surveillance, enterprise, industrial, railway, maritime, and military projects.
Fluidmesh was founded in 2005 by four Italian engineers: Umberto Malesci, Cosimo Malesci, Andrea Orioli, and Torquato Bertani. Fluidmesh was a spin-off company from MIT where Umberto Malesci and Cosimo Malesci were graduate students in the Department of Engineering. In 2005, Umberto Malesci was a graduate student working at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory with Prof. Samuel Madden (MIT) when he developed Fluidmesh's initial software based on the Roofnet open-source project leveraging Click Modular Router.[2] The Company was initially incubated at the Politecnico di Milano, in Milan, Italy. Over the years, Fluidmesh Networks expanded into the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America,[3] and obtained exposure on the Italian national press and television as a successful example of innovation-driven entrepreneurship in the high tech space.[4][5] Within ten years, Fluidmesh had sold and installed approximately 24,000 miles of wireless links.[6]
In 2010, Fluidmesh partnered with CCTV camera manufacturer, Pelco.[7]
In April 2011, Fluidmesh Networks announced it had been acquired by Generation 3 Capital and Waveland Investments, two private equity firms based in Chicago.[8]
In 2016, Fluidmesh Networks and Cisco announced a partnership to combine Cisco Connected Rail Solutions and Fluidmesh train-to-ground wireless technology into a single solution.[9]
On April 6, 2020, Cisco announced its intent to acquire Fluidmesh.[10][11] The acquisition was completed July 7, 2020.[12]