Airtel declared that it had acquired a strategic stake in Aqilliz. Airtel wants to use Aqilliz’s blockchain technologies at scale across its fast-growing edtech, i.e. Airtel Ads, digital entertainment, i.e. Wynk Music and Airtel Xstream and digital marketplace, i.e. Airtel Thanks App offerings.

“Bharti Airtel has acquired a strategic stake in Aqilliz, a Blockchain as a Service Company under the Airtel Startup Accelerator Program, subject to applicable statutory approvals,” the company said in a statement.

Aqilliz has made a hybrid blockchain platform called Atom, which combines differential privacy and federated learning in an allocated digital ledger. This will allow brands to create secure and consent-based solutions to engage with customers in a rapidly-evolving digital economy that’s becoming increasingly decentralised, the statement added.