BhartiAirtel now owns a stake in Aqilliz. The telecom giant seeks to scale the deployment of the startup’s Blockchain technologies across its fast growing business.
BhartiAirtel stated on Thursday that it had purchased a strategic share in Aqilliz, a Singapore-based Blockchain startup, for an undisclosed value.
Airtel intends to use Aqilliz’s Blockchain technologies at scale across its rapidly expanding offerings. Digital entertainment (Wynk Music&Airtel Xstream), a digital commerce (Airtel Thanks App), and adtech (Airtel Ads) are among the offerings.
Adarsh Nair, CEO of Airtel Digital said, “Blockchain technology is evolving,” adding that, “we see it being used in sectors such as adtech, the creator economy, and loyalty programmes.”
Aqilliz has created a patented hybrid blockchain architecture known as ‘Atom,’ which combines differential privacy with federated learning on a distributed digital ledger.
This enables organisations to develop secure and consent-based solutions for engaging with customers in a quickly growing digital economy that is becoming more decentralised.
Gowthaman Ragothaman, Founding CEO of Aqilliz, stated, “Airtel will be able to collect and carry this value exchange in the form of consent and provenance across the digital supply chain thanks to Aqilliz’s proprietary technology.”
The Airtel Startup Accelerator Programme invests in early-stage entrepreneurs developing technologies that are complementary to Airtel’s business services.
The initiative allows startups to launch their ideas and applications on a vast scale, including over 340 million retail users and over 1 million companies.
