Airtel picks up a strategic stake in tech start-up Waybeo

Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said it has picked up a strategic stake in Waybeo under its start-up accelerator program, in line with its strategy to ramp-up cloud offerings. The company did not divulge into the financial details of the deal.

Tech start-up Waybeo, focused on deep artificial intelligence-based analytics for cloud telephony, is fifth to join the Airtel Startup Accelerator Program. In the past, Vahan, Spectacom, Lattu Kids, and Voicezen have joined the program. "As part of its strategy to scale up its cloud offerings, Bharti Airtel today (on Wednesday) announced that it has picked up a strategic stake in tech start-up Waybeo under the Airtel Startup Accelerator Program," the company said in a statement.

The program aims to help promising start-ups unlock their potential, the statement added. The public cloud services market in India is likely to reach USD 7.1 billion by 2024, according to IDC estimates. Of this, the cloud telephony market is seeing rapid growth as businesses move processes to cloud-based platforms.

"Wayne has built cutting-edge analytics tools for the enterprise cloud telephony segment. Under the Airtel Startup Accelerator Program, Waybeo's solutions will get larger distribution reach while giving Airtel access to Waybeo's proven as well as emerging technologies," the statement added. Backed by an integrated product portfolio, including its multi-cloud product and solutions business, Airtel serves over 2,500 large enterprises and more than a million emerging businesses.

Bharti Airtel Chief Product Officer Adarsh Nair said, "Cloud technologies are transforming the way businesses serve and delight their customers". Waybeo CEO Krishnan R V said the company is focused on enterprise adoption for its call intelligence tools. Most of the enterprises drive hundreds of thousands of phone calls a month, but there are no analytics, automation, or means to optimize the customer experience, he added. "We look at strategic investment from Airtel as an opportunity to scale our technology and enterprise reach," he said.

The Airtel Startup Accelerator Program enables start-ups to leverage the company's ecosystem, including its strengths in data, distribution, networks, and payments. This entails access to the online and offline distribution networks, deep market understanding, and platform of global strategic partners. Start-ups also get access to advisory services from Airtel's executive team.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)