India’s premier communications solutions provider Bharti Airtel Monday announced an agreement to acquire approximately 25 percent equity stake in Bengaluru-based technology startup, Lavelle Networks.

The agreement is subject to applicable statutory approvals.

The home grown Lavelle Networks specialises in software-defined wide area network (WAN) solutions and 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, Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

As more enterprises move to cloud based applications to serve their customers in a digital-first eco system, they require on-demand and reliable network connectivity. As a result, there is a surge in demand for software defined solutions that have the agility to serve a cloud based hybrid IT environment.

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 solutions from Lavelle Networks and co-create a host of innovations as part of its NaaS platform. This also aims to bring “Made in India” products and solutions for enterprises by offering cutting edge technology and cost efficiencies.

Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, 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.”

Shyamal Kumar, co-founder & CEO, 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.”