June 20 (Reuters) - Haveli Investments will acquire Couchbase 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 shares, which have gained 21% this year, were up 31% 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 is part of a group of modern database companies — including MongoDB, 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 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, according to data compiled by LSEG.

It may engage with Couchbase's 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 can consider alternate offers.