The latest round came after Circles.Life’s successfully growing subscribers by more than 9X from Q1 2017 to Q1 2019.
Singapore, 6 June 2019 – Circles.Life has closed a funding round led by Government-linked strategic investor, EDBI with participation from Silicon Valley-based Founders Fund, to build a tech hub in Singapore and continue to innovate in the personalized digital services space in Singapore and beyond. This latest round of financing will also bolster Circles.Life’s capital resources and back the Singapore-based company to go global. The company also announced that it has successfully grown its subscriber base by more than 9X from Q1 2017 to Q1 2019.
Internationally, Circles.Life is expanding its presence across APAC region and beyond. This growth journey commences with the launch of Circles.Life Taiwan in June 2019, and will be followed with the launch of services in Australia. In both Taiwan and Australia, the plan is to roll out the digital mobile services as the first step in creating a platform of personalized digital service in those countries. By the end of 2019, the company aims to grow the global team with the Singapore engineering team expanding by 50%, making it Circles.Life’s global tech hub.
This latest round of financing follows the announcement of funding led by Sequoia India in February 2019.
“We have raised the bar in Singapore’s telco space and will continue our effort to digitize the global mobile services industry – delighting consumers with highly personalized digital services. We are very proud that both local and international blue-chip investors, whose visions are very much aligned with Circles.Life’s, are supporting us on this mission. This is a solid testament to the impact that we’re bringing to the industry,” said Abhishek Gupta, Co-founder of Circles.Life.
With support from EDBI, who is leading this round, Circles.Life aims to align itself with the country’s ambition to make the Smart Nation a reality.
“Homegrown Circles.Life is reinvigorating Singapore’s telco industry with its customer-first, data-driven approach enabled by its innovative digital platform. Built from ground-up, the platform not only provides a more flexible mobile service but also personalized lifestyle experiences for the consumer. As a strategic investor, EDBI looks forward to supporting Circles.Life in its next phase of growth to be a regional champion, leveraging Singapore as their springboard,” said Chu Swee Yeok, Chief Executive Officer and President of EDBI.
Founders Fund’s participation in this round is a strong testament of Circles.Life’s strong technology moat, by virtue of it being the first investment in the telco value chain that the firm has made. Established in 2005 by a group of technology pioneers including Peter Thiel, the San Francisco-based venture capital firm has notably been the first investor into Facebook and SpaceX, both currently leading the technology revolution in their respective fields.
“Circles.Life is demonstrating a new model for how telcos should operate. By being a digital first telecom, they are able to provide a superior customer experience, something that is very uncommon in an industry dominated by oligopolies who outsource the work on their technology stack to consulting companies. We are very excited for Circles.Life to bring their model to other countries in Asia and beyond” said Jeff Lonsdale of Founders Fund.
Circles.Life has crossed 5% mobile telco market share in Singapore since its launch, transforming a once traditional industry. Founded in Singapore in 2016, Circles.Life’s strategy is to launch an innovative digital mobile service and use this as the platform to build more personalized digital solutions. This is done through a truly differentiated business model, proprietary technology stack (Circles-X) and an agile approach to product development. At the core of Circles.Life’s unique business model is Circles-X, a proprietary software platform in the cloud stack which delivers a highly flexible and completely digital customer experience across the entire customer service journey. The company plans to launch services in more than five countries in the next 18 months.
