Soluto

Last updated
Soluto
Soluto logo.png
Type of business Subsidiary
Founded2008;16 years ago (2008)
Dissolved 2013; acquired by Asurion though remained as brand
Headquarters
Tel Aviv
,
Israel
Key peopleTomer Dvir (Cofounder, CEO), Ishay Green (Cofounder), Omri Haim (Chief Technology Officer)
Industry Computer software, remote support web application
URL www.solutotlv.com

Soluto was a device protection software developer that helped users identify and correct problems in Microsoft Windows. [1] It developed an identically named product offering that integrated a mobile app, web portal, proactive communications, and remote device management into one service. As part of a premium service, Soluto enabled users to contact premier support technicians. Soluto offered access via the web as part of Soluto PC Management platform. [2]

Contents

History

Soluto was founded in 2008 and received US$1.6 million in seed funding from Proxima Ventures. This was followed-up with a $6.2M second round of financing led by Bessemer Venture Partners and joined by Giza Venture Capital, in March 2009. [3] After the 2009 financisation, Israeli politician Naftali Bennett was brought in by investors as CEO. Bennett made several structural changes to the company, bringing on his brothers, Asher and Dan, as co-executives. [4] Asher, a respected expert in cryptography and graduate of the Technion, worked on expanding the range of solutions, while Dan, a graduate of McGill University, brought expertise in managing technical startups, specializing in user protection, in their infancy. [5]

Acquisition

In 2013, Soluto was acquired by Asurion, LLC. [6] Soluto ceased operation of the Soluto PC Management platform on April 1, 2016. [7] at the time of purchase, it had 40 employees.

Funding

Awards

Dissolution

In 2022, Asurion decided to dissolve Soluto in order to "focus its current growth on the cellular market". [14] The dissolution process included closing down Soluto's R&D center in Tel Aviv, and laying off all of its 120 employees.

Features

The original Soluto features are listed below.

Dashboard

The Soluto dashboard has 6 sections, [15] divided into categories of technical information that the user can see and remote actions the user can initiate: [16] [17]

  1. Frustrations: view information about non-responsive applications, recent application crashes, possible causes for crashes, and crash solutions.
  2. Apps: view a list of applications that have available updates and start the updates. View a list of applications that can be remotely downloaded and installed on the PC, and start the downloads.
  3. Background Apps: view the list of applications that start when the computer boots up, descriptions of the applications, and recommended actions based on the actions taken by other Soluto users. Remove applications from boot up or set applications to launch shortly after boot up.
  4. Internet : select or install a default browser, set the homepage, and change the default search engine. View enabled toolbars and add-ons, descriptions of them, and whether Soluto recommends the item be disabled. Disable toolbars and add-ons.
  5. Protection: turn on the PC's firewall, view or install antivirus software, and install Windows updates.
  6. Hardware : View technical info about the PC's hardware, including available memory and battery health. Defrag the hard drives. [18]

Downloaded Agent

Soluto uses a downloaded agent to transmit data to, and receive data from, Soluto's back-end servers. Data transmitted to Soluto includes the apps running during boot up, enabled browser toolbars and add-ons, hardware specs, and a specialized form of crash reports. The servers send back to the agent information such as solutions for recent crashes and the remote actions that were initiated by the user and need to occur. [19]

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References

  1. ↑ "Asurion acquires Soluto for $100m". Globes. 30 Oct 2013. Retrieved 30 Jun 2020.
  2. ↑ "Soluto".
  3. ↑ Soluto Raises $6.2M From Bessemer To Make Your PC Run Better, CrunchBase
  4. ↑ "Bennett repeats success with new $100 million exit". The Times of Israel .
  5. ↑ "Bennett repeats success with new $100 million exit". The Times of Israel .
  6. ↑ Eric, Blattberg. "Asurion snaps up Soluto for $100M+ to offset insurance risks" . Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  7. ↑ "Soluto for PC is shutting down". Soluto Support. February 2016. Retrieved 2016-05-28.
  8. ↑ Empson, Rip (13 December 2011). "Are You The "Family CTO"? A New Soluto Aims To Turn You Into A One-Person Help Desk". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  9. ↑ "New year, new friends, new Soluto". Soluto Blog. 2 February 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  10. ↑ Feldman, Yaniv (2 February 2012). "Release: Eric Schmidt and Michael Arrington Israeli investors" (in Hebrew). newsgeek.co.il. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  11. ↑ Siegler, MG (26 May 2010). "And The Winner Of TechCrunch Disrupt Is... Soluto!". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  12. ↑ "Announcing the 2010 AlwaysOn Global 250". alwayson.goingon.com/. 31 July 2010. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  13. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Jason (14 December 2010). "Most Popular Free Windows Downloads of 2010". lifehacker.com. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  14. ↑ "Asurion shutting down Israel R&D center Soluto, lays off all 120 employees". ctech. 2022-07-24. Retrieved 2022-08-15.
  15. ↑ "Getting started with the new Soluto - Part 1". Soluto Blog. 2 January 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  16. ↑ Mitchell, Suzie (23 February 2012). "My Son Fixes My Computer from Israel (Here's How!)". AARP.org. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  17. ↑ Mohta, Ashish (20 February 2012). "Soluto brings Web Based Remote Management for your Windows PC". technospot.net. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  18. ↑ "New Year, New Stuff in Soluto". Soluto Blog. 2 February 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  19. ↑ Bott, Ed (13 December 2011). "Can Soluto turn you into a long-distance tech-support hero?". zdnet.com. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
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