June 20 (Reuters) - Haveli Investments will acquire

Couchbase ( BASE ) for about $1.5 billion, the companies said on

Friday, as the private equity firm looks to capitalize on the

artificial intelligence-focused database company's platform.

Couchbase's ( BASE ) shares, which have gained 21% this year,

were up 29% in early trading following the news.

The company's cloud-based database powers AI-related

applications that need a flexible data model and easy

scalability.

Couchbase ( BASE ) is part of a group of modern database

companies - including MongoDB ( MDB ), Cockroach Labs, Snowflake

and Databricks - challenging legacy players such as

Oracle.

New database technologies make it easier and faster to

store, manage and use a large amount of unstructured data that

modern AI systems require.

Haveli Investments, founded by former Vista Equity

Partners president Brian Sheth, will pay Couchbase ( BASE ) shareholders

$24.50 per share, which represents a premium of about 29% to the

stock's last close price.

The private equity firm has a 9.6% stake in Couchbase ( BASE ),

according to data compiled by LSEG.

It may engage with Couchbase's ( BASE ) management or board to

explore strategic options, including a potential merger,

according to a March filing with the U.S. SEC.

The agreement includes a go-shop period that ends on

Monday, during which Couchbase ( BASE ) can consider alternate offers.