New Delhi: Bharti Airtel on Monday said it would acquire 25% equity stake in Bengaluru-based technology startup Lavelle Networks for an undisclosed amount. The agreement is subject to applicable statutory approvals.
Lavelle Networks specialises in Software-defined wide area network 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, Airtel said in a filing.
On Monday, Airtel shares were up nearly 2% at ₹729.25 in noon deals on NSE.
“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,” said Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO of Airtel Business.
Airtel Business’ Network as a service (NaaS) is a digital platform, which is built to address the emerging connectivity requirements of enterprises as they go through the cloud and digital adoption and acceleration journey.
As part of its NaaS portfolio, Airtel will offer software defined connectivity solution from Lavelle Networks and co-create a host of innovations as part of its NaaS platform.
“SD-WAN is the necessary arsenal for enterprises to transform and future-proof their network infrastructure in this digital age. Its market in India is expected to grow exponentially at a CAGR of 55% in 2022-2026,” according to Apalak Ghosh, Associate Director and Head of ICT, Frost & Sullivan South Asia.
Mr. Ghosh said that as per F&S End-User Survey 2021, about 62% of enterprises planned to deploy SD-WAN across their organisations in the next 1-2 years. Some of the major drivers which would contribute to this phenomenal run included the need for seamless management of Hybrid Networks, faster deployment of new sites, and network cost-efficiency, he added.