Microsoft has announced it has acquired Solair, an Italian company that has been delivering innovative Internet of Things (IoT) services to customers. Solair’s IoT customization and deployment solutions, built on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, are engineered to help businesses in any industry utilize IoT to run more efficiently and profitably.
Solair services can be applicable to various industries including manufacturing, retail, food & beverage and transportation. For example, Solair has brought the power of IoT to the Rancilio Group’s full line of espresso machines, allowing the Italian manufacturer to remotely monitor machines, resulting in greater efficiency across the supply chain. Using the power of cloud-based data and analytics, Solair has helped the Rancilio Group reduce costs and increase revenue. In Japan, Solair is using the power of IoT to transform the way factories monitor production lines. Their Smart Factory Advisor application has helped manufacturers increase production capacity and optimize energy efficiency. By enabling a factory’s machines with their IoT solution, the information and insights gathered are leading to more efficient ways of manufacturing.
Solair CEO Tom Davis stated: “From the very start, our mission has been to help customers quickly and easily gain access to the huge benefits of the Internet of Things (IoT). By building our solutions based on real customer requirements that allow them to gain real value. The last five years have been about growth – both for us as a company and for the IoT market as a whole – but today marks a new chapter for Solair. The Solair team and I look forward to being a part of Microsoft and a very strong Azure IoT team. It’s an opportunity that will allow us to bring the power of IoT to new and unique customer scenarios”.
“Solair shares our ambition for helping customers harness their untapped data and create new intelligence with IoT, and this acquisition supports our strategy to deliver the most complete IoT offering for enterprises,” said Sam George, Microsoft’s Partner Director, Azure IoT.
Solair, founded in 2011, had not publicly taken any venture capital cash from outside investors, and has 37 employees listed on LinkedIn. Founder and CEO Tom Davis and the rest of the Solair team will join Microsoft.
