Airtel acquires strategic stake in blockchain tech startup Aqilliz

Telecom major Bharti Airtel has acquired a stake in Singapore headquartered blockchain-based digital marketing company Aqilliz.

Aqilliz provides a blockchain platform called Atom, which allows brands to create solutions to engage with customers in order to show them relevant content through a distributed digital ledger. 

The company provides middleware technology meant to build a collaborative digital marketing ecosystem that is interoperable for all its players. The company claims that enterprises can perform advanced analytics on top of the platform, while preserving the privacy of user data. Being based on distributed ledgers, all participants are required to trust each other, share data and unify proprietary technologies. This in turn is expected to help the ecosystem with better insights in real-time, and for more efficient marketing.

“Blockchain technology is maturing and we see its application across areas such as adtech, creator economy, and loyalty programmes,” said Adarsh Nair, CEO – Airtel Digital.

Airtel will deploy Aqilliz’s blockchain technology into its adtech domains through Airtel Ads; digital entertainment platform Wynk Music and Airtel Xstream, and the Airtel Thanks App, which is the gateway to the company’s online payment bank used for recharges and claiming rewards.

Gowthaman Ragothaman, Founding CEO – Aqilliz, said that that the company’s technology can help improve ad targeting without using third party trackers, which many expect will be obliterated by regulations and new policies from tech giants like Google and Apple. “The GDPR or any of the privacy regulations demand that the data owner and the processor of data should maintain the record of processing of all activities. That is where most of the companies fail, because when two companies collaborate they both need to have the same data sets and same records of collaboration. Company A and B cannot have different records when they collaborate. We use distributed ledger to provide the same set of records to both the parties which can be used as a proof of processing,” he added.

The acquisition is part of Airtel’s Startup Accelerator Programme, through which the company invests in early-stage startups. The company had also launched its India Startup Innovation Challenge in December last year in partnership with the government’s investment promotion agency, Invest India. Airtel invites companies who could demonstrate solutions in 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), and other advanced technologies.