Sunny Pokala

Founder and Chairman Amtex Systems Inc.

Last Reviewed: September 19, 2026

Executive Summary

Sunny Pokala founded Amtex Systems Inc. on Wall Street in 1997 and spent the following quarter-century turning it into one of New York’s larger privately held IT consulting and staffing businesses, with roughly 500 professionals in the United States, more than a thousand in India, and offices across Europe, the Middle East and Singapore. What distinguishes him from most founders of services firms of that size is that he did not stop there. Rather than treating Amtex as a terminal business, he has used it as the base for a string of product ventures — Securra Health, a New York healthcare platform built on a proprietary AI engine, where he is now chief executive; Kavalan, a citizen-safety mobile application deployed in India; and Hoote, a voice-based social media platform he co-founded with Soundarya Rajinikanth. He has stepped back from the chief executive role at Amtex to serve as Chairman of the group while running those newer businesses, and he frames the through-line of his work as technology built for social impact rather than technology built for margin.

Career Highlights

• Founded Amtex Systems Inc. in 1997 with headquarters on Wall Street, New York.
• Grew the firm to roughly 500 professionals in America and more than 1,000 in India, with branch offices across Europe, the Middle East and Singapore.
• Now serves as Chairman of the Amtex group, having moved the chief executive role to his newer ventures.
• Founded Securra Health, a New York-based connected-care platform built around a proprietary AI engine, and leads it as Chief Executive Officer.
• Created Kavalan, a mobile citizen-safety application used in India, and is credited with the Dial 100 and MODE products.
• Co-founded Hoote, described as India’s first voice-based social media platform, with Soundarya Rajinikanth; the public beta launched in 2021.
• Serves as a director of Cygnvs, a cyber crisis response platform.
• Received a CII Connect award for exemplary application of technology.

Professional Journey

Pokala took a master’s degree in computer and information sciences at the New York Institute of Technology and later completed executive education at Harvard Business School. He founded Amtex Systems in 1997, at a point when the US technology services market was reorganising around offshore delivery and demand for technical staffing was about to be transformed by the Y2K remediation wave and the internet build-out that followed.

Amtex grew on a conventional but well-executed model: a Wall Street headquarters close to the financial services clients that buy the most technical staffing, paired with a substantially larger delivery organisation in India. The proportions tell the story — around 500 people in America against more than a thousand in India — and the firm expanded beyond staffing into software development, business intelligence, digital media, mobile applications and talent management. Branch offices followed in Europe, the Middle East and Singapore. Company material describes the result as one of New York’s top four privately held firms in IT consulting and services, a claim that sits in its own marketing rather than in any published ranking.

The more interesting phase of Pokala’s career is the second one. Rather than remaining a services operator, he began launching products, and the pattern across them is consistent: consumer-facing, socially framed, and aimed largely at the Indian market even where the company sits in New York. Kavalan is a citizen-safety application for India. Securra Health, where he is founder and chief executive, is a healthcare platform built on a proprietary AI engine for connected and continuous care, with a New York base and a staff in the low hundreds. Hoote, which he co-founded with the film producer Soundarya Rajinikanth, was billed at its 2021 public beta as India’s first voice-based, multilingual social media platform, and launched at an event fronted by Rajinikanth himself. He has also taken a directorship at Cygnvs, a cyber crisis response company.

That shift is reflected in how Amtex now describes him. The company’s own leadership page presents him primarily as founder and chief executive of Securra and Chairman of the Amtex group, rather than as Amtex’s operating chief executive — a handover that commercial data providers have not caught up with. His stated management philosophy is unremarkable in its terms but consistent in its emphasis, resting on harmony, respect and communication as the preconditions for teamwork, and on building products “fueled by compassion, and awareness.” His work has been recognised with a CII Connect award for applying technology in ways that improve people’s lives, and he is a member of Indiaspora, the network of Indian diaspora business and civic leaders.

Education

New York Institute of Technology

Master’s degree, Computer and Information Sciences

Harvard Business School

Executive Education (non-degree)