Team News Riveting
New Delhi, January 31
Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s premier communications solutions
provider, today announced an agreement to acquire appx. 25% 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 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.
As more enterprise 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.
“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. As per F&S End-User Survey 2021, about 62% of enterprises plan to deploy SD-WAN
across their organization in the next 1-2 years. Some of the major drivers which would contribute to
this phenomenal run include the need for seamless management of Hybrid Networks, faster
deployment of new sites, and network cost-efficiency.” Apalak Ghosh, Associate Director and Head of
ICT, Frost & Sullivan South Asia
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 & 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. This
also aims to bring “Made in India” products & 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.”
Airtel Business serves over one million businesses through its integrated portfolio of – connectivity,
conferencing, cloud & data centers, cyber security, IoT, Ad-tech, CPaaS (Airtel IQ), and more. It is the
market leader in India’s enterprise connectivity segment.
