Digi International, Minnetonka, Minn., purchased bluenica, a Canada-based company focused on temperature monitoring of perishable goods, to form Digi Cold Chain Solutions. Terms of the transaction were not immediately disclosed.

The bluenica solution is an easy-to-deploy means to ensure the quality and freshness of food products in grocery stores, convenience stores and restaurants, as well as in refrigerated trailers and warehouses. The temperature monitoring software-as-a-service (SaaS) application uses low-power wireless sensors, communications gateways and cloud-based software to continuously monitor the temperature and automatically deliver real-time alerts to a smartphone, tablet or computer.

"We have worked hard to develop this patent-pending cold chain IoT offering," says Colin Warkentin, founder and CEO of bluenica. "We are excited to join Digi International. With Digi's technology breadth and market reach, we believe we can rapidly scale to meet the growing demand for our bluenica solution."

"We believe the retail cold chain market represents a large underserved market that can take much greater advantage of wireless sensor networking and IoT capabilities delivered as a reliable, cloud-based service offering," adds Ron Konezny, president and CEO, Digi International. "We expect Digi's wireless expertise and global market presence will help accelerate adoption of this purpose-built IoT application to a broad customer base."