China-headquartered Huawei is in talks to acquire HexaTier, an Israeli start-up focussed on security in the cloud, Reuters reported.

According to the news outlet’s sources, Huawei will use the company to set up an R&D centre in Israel with a focus on securing databases in the cloud.

News of the deal comes after Huawei’s CEO Ren Zhengfei reportedly visited Israel several weeks ago.

HexaTier describes itself as a provider of security and compliance services for databases across multiple platforms, including database-as-a-service, private public or hybrid cloud environments, and on premise.

The company employs around 40 staff and is funded by Israeli venture capital to the tune of $14.5 million.

Reuters said the deal is expected to go through soon. A fee was not reported.