Airtel to acquire 25% stake in SD-WAN solutions provider Lavelle Networks

Bharti Airtel has agreed to acquire a stake of around 25% in Lavelle Networks, a Bengaluru-based technology startup that provides software-defined wide area network solutions (SD-WAN solutions).

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Lavelle Networks caters to a variety of industry segments. Its platform is said to have connected several thousands of Indian firms from the largest financial institutions in India to e-commerce networks.

Shyamal Kumar — co-founder and CEO of Lavelle Networks said: “Digital India’s businesses are racing away to applications, cloud and software. Connecting all of this together are our enterprise data networks. We are extremely excited that our product and early market success will now be massively accelerated by this transformational partnership with Airtel.”

Airtel to acquire 25% stake in SD-WAN solutions provider Lavelle Networks. Photo courtesy of Shrutuja Shirke/Wikimedia Commons.

According to Airtel, there is a need for on-demand and reliable network connectivity as more enterprises migrate to cloud-based applications to serve their clients in a digital-first ecosystem. Owing to this, there is an increase in demand for software defined solutions that have the agility for serving a cloud-based hybrid IT environment.

The communications solutions provider said that as part of the Airtel Business‘ Network as a service (NaaS) portfolio, it will provide software defined connectivity solution from Lavelle Networks and co-develop a range of innovations.

Ajay Chitkara — Director and CEO of Airtel Business said: “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.”

The closing of the deal, which is subject to applicable statutory approvals, is likely to occur by the end of next month.

Recently, Airtel announced that internet giant Google will invest up to $1 billion in the company to drive India’s digital ecosystem.