Bharti Airtel has announced an agreement to acquire a 25% stake in Bengaluru-based tech startup, Lavelle Networks for an undisclosed sum just days after receiving a $1 billion investment commitment from US tech giant, Google.
The deal is part of the telco’s Airtel Business unit’s plans to address the emerging connectivity requirements of enterprises as they go through the cloud and accelerate digital adoption. The agreement is subject to applicable statutory approvals, Airtel said in a media statement Monday.
Homegrown Lavelle Networks specializes in software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) solutions and it serves a range of industry segments. Its platform has connected several thousands of Indian enterprises from the nation’s largest financial institutions to e-commerce networks.
“We are pleased to support Lavelle’s growth journey and excited to collaborate with them to take their world-class solutions to enterprise customers in the fast growing Indian NaaS market. With our end-to-end solutions play and brand trust, we are uniquely positioned to serve the needs of India’s fast growing digital economy,” Ajay Chitkara, director & CEO, Airtel Business, said in an official statement. .
NaaS or Network as a service is a digital platform, which is built to address emerging connectivity needs of enterprises.
Shyamal Kumar, co-founder & CEO, Lavelle Networks, in turn, said the company is “excited that its product and early market success will now be massively accelerated by this transformational partnership with Airtel”.