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Relay and Celona partner to improve worker safety in industrial operations by reducing connectivity dead zones. Oct 13, 2026, 08:00 ET Celona's private 5G LAN extends connectivity for the Relay system of action for physical operations in industrial environments RALEIGH, N.C. and CAMPBELL, Calif., Oct. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Relay and Celona today announced they are partnering to deliver more consistent communications for frontline workers to improve their safety and efficiency. With Celona's Orion platform providing private 5G and Wi-Fi across large industrial campuses, workers using the Relay system of action for physical operations can remain reliably connected throughout their facilities, even in challenging wireless environments. Industrial facilities are among the most difficult radio environments on earth. Locations can be remote, campuses can span millions of square feet, and dense metal in refineries, manufacturing facilities, and warehouses can hinder radio propagation, leaving public cellular coverage patchy. And Wi-Fi's lower transmit power can make it unreliable for mobile workers on forklifts traversing large manufacturing facilities and working in outdoor yards. The result is a proliferation of connectivity "dead zones", where communication via traditional two-way radios - the most common mode in these facilities - can be compromised, leaving workers vulnerable to safety risks and operations to an incomplete record. For enterprises rolling out connected worker programs, those gaps create a ceiling on what any frontline technology can deliver. Celona addresses these challenges by delivering enterprise-grade private 5G alongside Wi-Fi as part of a converged wireless platform that operates entirely within the organization's network. Relay applies Celona's private 5G to log and organize spoken observations from frontline teams in challenging connectivity environments and turn them into action in the systems an enterprise already runs. Since a worker wearing protective equipment in a loud manufacturing facility cannot easily type instructions into common digital workplace transformation applications, Relay serves insights from their spoken observations and instructions through the interface they already use: a ruggedized, push-to-talk radio. "Reliable connectivity is foundational to worker safety and productivity, particularly across large industrial environments where traditional wireless technologies can struggle," said Puneet Shetty, SVP of Product and Field Engineering at Celona. "Together with Relay, we're extending the benefits of converged wireless to frontline workers, helping maintain critical communications across even the most challenging areas of industrial facilities." The companies will deliver continuous coverage across the entire industrial footprint, and the operation's record of the work happening in it. Relay devices have been thoroughly tested on Celona's network and are ready to work out of the box. Real-time translation across 35 languages, leveraging AI models tuned specifically for manufacturing, keeps multilingual crews coordinated, while panic alerts and location context help keep them safe. The observations, handoffs, and judgment calls that teams generate every shift become part of the record instead of evaporating at the end of it. "The most important piece of equipment a frontline worker carries is the ability to reach someone. In a plant that's loud, hazardous, and spread across acres, that's the difference between a near-miss and an incident," said Ibraheem Khalifa, Principal Product Manager, Relay. "Our partnership with Celona helps ensure frontline teams remain not just productive but also safe, no matter where in the facility they're working." Relay and Celona solutions are currently being used in combination at customer sites in the food manufacturing industry. To learn more about the partnership and how the companies are collaborating to support critical wireless communications while also enabling greater operational insights, watch the video here. About Relay Relay is the system of action for physical operations, serving the 80 percent of the world's workforce that doesn't sit behind a desk - the frontlines. Relay captures what the frontline says and does, and turns it into action in the systems they already run, helping teams unlock operational intelligence and improve their communications, safety, and productivity. Relay's system combines its powerful software and AI platform with purpose-built next-gen hardware, to better connect frontline teams, overcome language barriers with support for 35 languages, and deliver rapid ROI for its customers. Relay is used by nearly 10 percent of the Fortune 500, and processes over one billion data points weekly from the nearly 10,000 sites it's deployed across in sectors like manufacturing, hospitality, healthcare, and more. For more information, visit relaypro.com. About Celona Celona is the converged wireless foundation for the AI-native enterprise. The company unifies private 5G, Wi-Fi, public cellular and satellite into a single enterprise-controlled platform that delivers secure, deterministic wireless connectivity for AI agents, autonomous machines, intelligent devices and the people who work alongside them. Leading enterprises across manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, energy, mining and other industries rely on Celona to power mission-critical operations in some of the world's most demanding environments. To learn more, visit celona.io. How can push-to-talk radios stay connected across large industrial facilities where traditional two-way radios and Wi-Fi fall short? Relay's push-to-talk radios run on cellular, Wi-Fi, and now private 5G through Relay's partnership with Celona, so crews can stay connected even in the hardest-to-reach parts of a large industrial facility. Dense metal and huge footprints leave traditional two-way radios, public cellular, and Wi-Fi with dead zones, and legacy radios may depend on line of sight and repeaters for their range. The Celona's Orion platform delivers private 5G and Wi-Fi that stays entirely within the organization's network, and Relay's ruggedized radios run on it out of the box, extending coverage into these difficult but critical areas. Which push-to-talk systems combine panic alerts and real-time location for frontline worker safety? Relay includes panic alerts and location context on its push-to-talk radios, so when a worker calls for help, responders know who needs it and where to go. Those alerts are only as dependable as the connection behind them, which is why Relay partnered with Celona: Celona Orion's private 5G and Wi-Fi help alerts get through across processing plants and manufacturing facilities, including areas where public cellular and Wi-Fi coverage has been patchy. How can manufacturers log knowledge from the shop floor? Relay lets frontline workers log what they see just by speaking into their radio. Workers in protective gear or loud areas can't easily stop to type into a form on a screen, so Relay records their spoken observations and turns them into action in the systems the company already uses. Celona's private 5G and Wi-Fi keep that information flowing from every corner of the facility. Media contacts: SOURCE Relay Inc.

Relay raises $36M on big plans, CEO Chuang says. 10/01/2026 Raleigh's smart walkie-talkie maker Relay expects to hire as many as 100 workers and expand globally after raising $36 million in financing, the company said this week. Relay uses artificial intelligence incorporated into its web of services, which include offering translations in 35 languages. The technology helps link a wide variety of users who work for about 50 companies in the Fortune 500, ranging from steel workers to restaurant hosts. The company launched in 2015 as a spinoff from communications provider Republic Wireless. "We needed the funding to fuel our rapid growth," says CEO and co-founder Chris Chuang. With one push, users are connected to back offices by voice and with location information, making the radios useful in emergencies or when dealing with customers who speak different languages. Relay has 300 employees, including 270 in the Raleigh area. It is expecting to add another 50 over the next few months, according to Chuang. Plans call for more "go-to-market" support and added product functions, he adds. Relay has cracked the Inc. 500 list for three consecutive years. Chuang wouldn't disclose revenues but says Relay is nearing profitability. Investors include Relay's customer International Paper, which was the lead investor, with other backing from Cerity Partners, Harmonic Growth Partners, Thayer Investment Partners and earlier backers G2 Venture Partners and Wind River Ventures. Relay is the latest in a series of wireless technology ventures for Chuang, who was a senior leader at Motricity and Bandwidth, then launched and sold Republic Wireless and spun off Relay as a separate company. Relay has now raised $90 million, including $42 million in 2024. PitchBook has estimated its valuation at about $370 million, Axios Raleigh reported.