Bharti Airtel, India’s second largest telco, has acquired a 7% stake in Cnergee Technologies, a cloud-based networking solutions provider under the Airtel Startup Acceleration Program.
The Navi Mumbai-based startup has developed a range of 5G-ready network-as-a-service (NaaS) software tools that the startup said can be deployed at scale to enable zero touch service provisioning, central remote monitoring, and management of all connected devices with a host of real time analytics.
“As businesses move to cloud-based applications, software defined agile networks are becoming the norm. Airtel…look forward to deploying their ‘Made in India’ solutions at scale in the fast growing NaaS market in India,” Ajay Chitkara, CEO at Airtel Business, said in a joint statement Wednesday.
No financial or stake details were given in the statement, but a person familiar with the matter said that Airtel has bought a 7% stake.
The acquisition comes as part of Bharti Airtel’s NaaS proposition for small and medium businesses (SMBs) looking to shift to cloud-based solutions. Airtel said this will allow the company to enhance its ‘Work from anywhere’ solutions, helping SMBs to adopt hybrid work models in a post-pandemic world.
“It is an exciting time for Cnergee to partner with Airtel in this digital transformation journey and reach out to emerging businesses of all sizes driving Digital India,” Suvarna Kulkarni, founder at Cnergee, said in the statement.
Airtel Start-up Accelerator Program invests in early-stage start-ups engaged in developing solutions based on new age technologies which also complements Airtel’s Digital vision across segments.