Digi plans $130 million sensor acquisition for SmartSense

Digi International has agreed to buy Disruptive Technologies for $130 million in cash. The supplier would join Digi’s SmartSense business unit, expanding the range of conditions it can track, according to the company’s October 1 announcement.

Digi plans to finance the purchase through its existing revolving credit facility. It expects to close before the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approval. The release put Disruptive Technologies’ calendar 2025 revenue at $15 million and annualized recurring revenue at $2 million.

Digi, based in Hopkins, Minnesota, sells connectivity products, software and managed services that help businesses deploy and manage connected infrastructure.

From cold storage to the cloud#

Disruptive Technologies lists headquarters in Lysaker, Norway, and U.S. headquarters in Atlanta. Its current sensor portfolio covers temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, water, motion and occupancy, alongside door, touch and proximity sensing. That range extends beyond refrigeration into measurements of rooms, buildings and how spaces are used.

Sensors send readings through the Cloud Connector gateway to the cloud. Studio offers analysis and alerts; an application programming interface (API) provides access for other software. The company says the gateway needs no customer IT network.

For food service, the company’s cold-storage offering automatically records temperatures in refrigerators, freezers and cold rooms. A separate door-monitoring function shows whether a refrigerator or freezer door is open, closed or ajar.

An alert can be triggered when a temperature moves outside a defined range. The company describes an installation built around adhesive sensors that communicate wirelessly and a gateway that plugs in. Sensors require no pairing with the gateway, according to the company. Its cold-storage page markets the system to restaurants, hotels and caterers, and names Ospelt Catering and RaceTrac as customer examples.

How SmartSense handles an alarm#

SmartSense already offers wireless sensors, cellular gateways and a cloud dashboard through Monitor. SmartSense says its software lets teams set alarm thresholds, delays, severity and operating schedules. A maintenance mode can suppress alarms during planned equipment work.

When an alarm triggers, Monitor creates an incident. Staff can assign that incident, acknowledge the alarm and record the corrective action, leaving a history of the response for later review. The company says teams can configure routing by shift and set response timers. If an incident remains unaddressed past the chosen time, the software escalates it to the next responsible person or team.

For businesses with multiple locations, Monitor organizes assets by site, zone and department. Staff can filter incidents by severity, equipment or location and review open issues and alarm patterns. Its dashboard also displays equipment states such as normal, alarm, offline or maintenance, with readings and histories available for individual assets. Teams can also track battery status, connectivity, missed sensor reports and power events.

The system can export incident reports as PDF or CSV files. Separate reports list equipment readings, time spent outside the configured range, and the alarm settings used for each asset.

Digi also wants the acquisition to give SmartSense a European commercial base. It said the target’s customer relationships and infrastructure would support a consistent monitoring platform for multinational customers operating across regions.