Device Insurer Asurion Acquires Cloud-Based Device Management Startup Soluto For Up To $130M

By Anouk Lorie, NoCamels October 30, 2013 2 minutes

Another week, another Israeli exit and this time it is startup Soluto, which lets users manage PCs and other connected devices remotely. The startup has been acquired by device insurance company Asurion for a reported $130 million (some sources say it’s between $100 million and $130 million). Considering that Soluto, which has raised just under $20 million in its six years of existence, had a hard time creating a viable business model, the exit is welcome news.

Soluto started out as a cloud-based solution that allows people to help each other manage and fix their devices. While the initial focus was on PCs, Soluto later expanded its services into other devices like tablets and smartphones. In April, Soluto also started to offer services to small and medium businesses.

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To date, the startup has amassed over three million downloads and says more than 15 million actions have been performed on its platform. This critical mass of users was part of the appeal for Asurion.

Asurion, founded in 1994 and located in Nashville, Tennessee, provides mobile protection to millions of customers worldwide. The largest wireless companies serviced by Asurion are AT&T , T-Mobile, Verizon , Bouygues Telecom and Virgin Media. Asurion’s services include replacement of broken devices and software-based services like lost devices and backing up content.

According to TechCrunch, “Soluto will help Asurion extend and improve the latter part of the service, perhaps as a way also to offset some of the insurance risk around losing and replacing faulty or broken handsets.”

The Soluto team includes Tomer Dvir, co-founder and CEO; Omri Haim, CTO and VP of R&D; Merav Oren MOskovich, CP of Product and Boaz Shetzer, VP of Operations. Investors include Index Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and Giza Venture Capital.

In 2010, Soluto won the TechCrunch Disrupt competition, beating out 20 other startups and winning $50,000, a humble sum in retrospect.

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